Summary: On this episode of ID the Future from the vault, physicist Rob Sheldon discusses the BICEP2 Consortium's apparent discovery of evidence for the inflationary model of the Big Bang, and the annoucement's impact on questions of cosmic fine-tuning. The consortium later withdrew their claim to have found the first evidence for the primordial “B-mode” polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Dr. Sheldon's initial reaction to the announcement provides a model of scientific caution. In Pt. 1 and the subsequent Pt. 2 of this podcast conversation, Sheldon explains some of the underlying assumptions guiding BICEP2, and various things that could have led the astronomers astray. Please consider donating to support the IDTF Podcast: idthefuture.org/donate.
