Summary
Overview
In this Field Notes episode of The Rest is Science, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore a stunning visualization that shows how human egg cells sit precisely at the midpoint between the smallest and largest measurable sizes in the universe. They discuss the bizarre lopsidedness of scale, share favorite Wikipedia articles, explain why shower thoughts happen, and correct a previous episode's mistake about historical attitudes toward curiosity.
The Journey from Planck Length to Observable Universe
Michael introduces a remarkable visualization created by Reddit user Burrow/Brew that illustrates what happens when you start at the Planck length and grow 10 times bigger every second while simultaneously starting at the observable universe and shrinking 10 times smaller every second. The two journeys meet exactly in the middle at a human egg cell, revealing the profound asymmetry of scale in our universe and how relatively large atomic structures are compared to fundamental physics.
- A human egg cell sits exactly halfway between the Planck length (smallest measurable size) and the observable universe (largest observable size)
- The Planck length is so small that for 10 seconds of growing 10x per second, you only reach the size of a neutrino while your friend shrinking from the universe has already passed galaxies
- After 17 seconds, you're the size of a quark while your friend has shrunk to Earth's orbital diameter - showing extreme lopsidedness
- After 20 seconds, you're a proton and your friend is the size of the moon - you still don't have color while your friend has had it for a long time
- After 30 seconds, you're a white blood cell and your friend is a grain of sand, then you both meet at the human egg cell
" You are both going to meet in the exact middle, and in that middle is the human egg cell, the cell we all come from. "
" You're a quark. You're not even up to a proton yet and you've come down to the earth's orbital diameter. Isn't that incredible? "
" A white blood cell to a human cell? To a grain of sand. Wow. "
Favorite Wikipedia Articles and Internet Rabbit Holes
Following the visualization discussion, Hannah and Michael share their favorite obscure Wikipedia articles. They discuss the brilliantly curated "orders of magnitude" pages that compare different sizes, masses, and measurements, and celebrate Wikipedia's delightfully nerdy culture through examples like the photo of economist Guy Standing sitting down and actor Guy Standing also sitting.
- Hannah's favorites include 'Dying While Laughing' and 'Inventors Killed by Their Own Inventions'
- Michael loves the 'orders of magnitude' pages that show comparisons like the sun converting the mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza into energy every second
- Wikipedia has a page listing unusual articles and orders of magnitude for almost every unit of measurement
- Economist Guy Standing's Wikipedia photo shows him sitting, and actor Guy Standing also has a photo captioned 'Guy Standing sitting'
" So one is an economist at SOAS, University of London. His name is Guy Standing, but his picture is of a guy sitting. "
" Every second the sun converts an amount of mass equivalent to the Great Pyramid of Giza into pure energy, every second. "
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