There is a bit of confusion around the 26 min mark where the definition of "the Universe" is concerned. The way Jad describes it he is saying that everything beyond space is the universe hence the lack of center. But I've never encountered such a definition. As I understand it the universe is the totality of the space we are in. So when people talk of "multi-verses" they refer to other spaces in the great unknown in which our space exists.
The other assumption of which i too have always had is that outside of what we call "space" may have no space (could be like a solid) and that could be true but I think we are clinging to the old name we have given it "space" and therefore assume that it is a bubble punched into something. A something we have no idea of. It's a nice theory to work with but is just a theory. There is nothing to suggest that it isn't like a balloon but that the interior and exterior are different.
The one thing we do know is that the exterior is different enough to allow for the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. Science keeps going on about dark energy but if I create an explosion deep underwater versus an explosion in space there will be a drastic difference in the shock wave that is similar to our universe. Rather than the energy within it is the surrounding forces that have more to do with the expansion.

The likelihood of anyone reading this is the same as The Golden Record's, but I thought I'd do it anyway -- so moved am I by the relevant material.  

I just got finished watching "Cosmos" for the first time & have ow been picking up ancilliary stuff here & there on the InterNet. 
I wanted to know more about The Golden Record. 
Hard to believe while it's cold & gray outside, I'm just lounging on my couch, buying Carl & Ann's book "Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors", while looking at TGR's wiki that has an external link for "RadioLab", a search of which for DRUYAN bought me here & as I'm typing this downloading the RL interview, all on my iPad 2 .... 

The InterNet roxorz!  lol

if the universe is big that means that there should be many intelligent civilizations sending many Voyagers. this means that it may be likely that one of those Voyagers will end of on one of those civilizations.

I wish they framed the discussion at 34:00 differently. Science isn't about whether or not we're important. Things we can't detect should represent endless possibility, not our own deficiency.

Indeed, one of my personal faves!

Hi Omar! I'm almost 29 - and I was so young at the time (4) that I don't remember it. I think I was obsessed with Rainbow Brite at the time... I assume that's why it was included - I'd never heard it. For years I thought I remembered it - and in college realized that what I remembered was not the actual event, but a 5 yr memorial/remembrance thing at my elementary school! I didn't watch the news at 4 OR 9, so how was I to know?

The Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan story inspired this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTKqGycHGHs

The rest of the time capsules are here: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2007/nov/20/space-capsules/

Hydrogen; Oxygen; Carbon; Nitrogen: the Universe is in us? Not even a sound-bite about Dark Matter being inside us too? Keep inside almost everyone's Comfort Zone--and never approach the thresh hold of wonder or mystery. Ironically, such frivolous "explorations" as yours make great entertainment for young minds on holiday weekends; but actually DO keep us at the Center of the Universe--only without having to acknowledge the dangerous responsibilities that come with having our Front-Row-Center seat. Yet it's precisely here where Carl Sagan's "Hope for a Pale Blue Dot" comes to mind....

On the Space Episode, there was talk of additional concepts for the Voyager Record that was posted on the website site. But I can't find them. Was it only posted during the week of the broadcast.

Your help would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Mathieu R

I was a little dissapointed with the choice to replay the Challenger explosion transmissions in this episode.

I can usually deal with most of the "graphic" stuff on the show (including surgically inserting electrodes into iguana brains or smothering cowbirds with your bare hands), but I thought the drawn-out launch countdown that then painfully continued into the explosion was a bit gratuitous.

I understand that the intent was to have the listener somehow feel the full effect of the accident and how it changed America's attitude towards the space program. I am just not sure that that's what is accomplished. It shocked me for a moment and I had to rewind the show to hear what I missed while I was thinking about my disappointment.

In my opinion, it might have been more powerful to have just had silence while the listener ran the event through their mind or to have cut out of the recording just before the explosion into sound. It just seemed obvious and cold.

I LOVE the show and I will post 3 positive comments to balance this one out. Thanks again!

my years of thought finally have some answers,,,