hello and welcome to our team at half past the hour these are your top stories a blot on the face of the olympics dozens of side of the stars swept away by police outside the stadium officers used pepper spray against members of the amateur club allegedly tried to push through a security cordon. syrian rebels claim government tanks have started moving into aleppo but the battle for the city likely to prove a turning point in the young rats that says u.n. peace efforts on the ground failed to take hold. and saudi arabia is said to have opened fire on crowds of protesters as clashes continue in the country with injuries and arrests the shiite minority is calling for social justice and an end to what they describe as discrimination by us and i rulers next to our t.

asks a nobel prize winner in physics how he thinks the universe began and our special interview. i. with me is alex still a pain pill and american astrophysics and a professor at the university of california berkeley he was a member of the team that received the twenty eleven nobel prize for discovering the dark energy that is speeding up at the punch you know the entire universe and he believes it could have sprung into existence without any divine help whatsoever well now we will have a chance to talk about this more thank you very much for joining me here today it is a pleasure to be here thanks so you maintain you do not need any divine help to explain how the universe came to be so what is your version will let me start by saying that i'm going to discuss the universe only from the perspective of

a scientist from an intellectual perspective i'm not going to be talking about whether there is a spiritual god or a personal god or a purpose to the universe these are questions that science can't address my own belief is that once you have the laws of physics the universe just keeps going on its own and it could even be that the laws of physics are all that you need in order to get the universe to start from the very beginning the big bang what is then the origin of the laws of physics so that's a great question what is the origin of the laws of physics i don't know that's a question science can't answer what if the laws of physics have always existed and they give rise to a universe our universe and perhaps even multiple universes that's a possibility but it's a possibility that's sort of outside the realm of science because we don't know of

any way to experimentally or observationally test whether that's a correct hypothesis so. let's start from the very beginning why did gave rise to the universe why was there a big bang so what gave rise to the universe is an interesting question we don't exactly know the answer to that but we have some ideas for example if there was a preexisting universe then what's called quantum fluctuations little bits of energy coming into existence for a very short time and then usually disappearing well those can occasionally give rise to a universe because if a quantum fluctuation lasts for a long time it can grow to a very large size and that can essentially give rise to a universe and that universe might then have quantum fluctuations that produce other universes so that would be a never ending sequence of universes arising as a result of just fluctuations in energy in existing universes that's one idea

or another possibility is that there was some sort of a hyperspace some sort of a mathematical space in which the laws of physics existed and then universes just sort of pop off like little soap bubbles that a child might blow so there might be all these soap bubbles which are like different universes in a much bigger hyperspace within which the laws of physics operate for unknown reasons and you see it all starts with a lot of the physics but i can't tell you where they came from what's very beautiful to me is that a very small number of laws can explain the vast complexity around us with the one exception where we still just don't know and that's life and intelligence ok we just don't know biologists have not of advanced far enough to understand exactly how life arose and how an intelligence arises but the mechanical

universes amazingly complex yet explain. inable with a few simple laws scientists have just announced the discovery of hex boston what do you think what does it tell us about the origin of the universe the higgs bosun helps complete what's called the standard model of particle physics there is a way we have to try to understand electrons and quarks and neutrinos and other kinds of particles and the higgs bows on was kind of a missing piece of the puzzle which if it were not there would would mean that we'd have to kind of start over but the fact that it appears to have been found completes our picture of the standard model of particle physics. that's not to say that we understand everything we don't yet understand how gravity fits in with particle physics other than the fact that gravity you know pulls particles together

but we also don't understand things like dark energy the universe seems to be filled with a dark energy that sticks yeah yeah it's expanding the universe faster and faster i helped discover that and the twenty eleven nobel prize in physics was given to the team leaders last year for that discovery so we don't understand the dark energy there's also something called dark matter it may or may not be some kind of fundamental particles that could be part of the standard model we don't yet understand so the higgs bozon is a very important discovery but it does not solve all questions that remain in physics but it it is but it is a very important discovery in a sense it would have been a more exciting as a scientist if it were not there to me because it would mean that that we're not correct in our view of the universe and the surprises are more fun than the expected discoveries sort of like we expected to find that the universe is

slowing down just like when i toss a water bottle up it slows down due to gravity. of the earth you know pulling it down and eventually it stops and brings it back down well we expected all the galaxies to put be pulling on each other and to be slowing down the expansion of the universe but instead we found that the expansion is speeding up so that that meant that there's something totally brand new that was unanticipated that we don't understand and for a scientist that's more fun than just confirming something that you already thought was there that something that you already thought was true why are there any unanticipated discoveries among scientists i don't think scientists will ever truly understand creation because i don't think we'll know where the laws of physics came from but given a universe given that universes can arise i think someday maybe we may well

understand dark energy and dark matter and the other constituents of the universe we only discovered dark energy fourteen years ago the accelerating expansion of the universe so it's no surprise that we don't yet fully understand dark energy dark matter was only conceived a few decades ago so again we don't yet really know what dark matter is but we've not been investigating it for very long i mean in hundreds of years who knows what we will know we might have a full inventory of what's in the universe and how everything behaves so we will know a lot. but we won't quite know why it all happened and why there's something rather than nothing what why are there any mathematical laws of physics rather than just nothing at all i don't know that will ever understand that scientists are only well aware of four percent of the universe that is we

understand pretty well the nature of four percent of the universe the stuff that is made of atoms. ninety six percent of the percent of the universe is made out of dark matter and dark energy and although we know that they are present we don't know what their detailed properties are or why they are there or what exactly is going on so in the past couple of decades there's been a true revolution in our understanding of the universe what we used to think of as being everything. is actually only four percent of the pie if you think of a pile with slices four percent consists of the normal stuff of which we are made but this is fascinating it's fantastic that's right yeah and so you can see

that our our view of the universe as scientists changes and that's the strength of science scientists are not afraid to say that they used to be wrong their view of nature was incomplete we love finding new things and coming up with what we think is a more complete description of nature that's the fun of it we don't take anything as an article of faith other than perhaps the existence of the laws of physics but everything else we try to understand from those laws of physics and with time we're coming to a better understanding of the laws themselves for example i said that there are four fundamental forces but in fact in high energy colliders like the large hadron collider they're smashing particles together so much with such great force they

found that the electromagnetic force what holds adams together is very similar to and in fact the same thing as what's called the new weak nuclear force which is a very strange force having to do with neutrons they behave the same way when particles have very high energies so in a sense there's only three fundamental forces and there's a suspicion that the electro weak force and the strong nuclear force which is what keeps protons and neutrons together in a nucleus they might become the same force at even higher energies leaving a grand unified force and gravity. and then in the theories of everything string theory is one attempt to do this they are trying to unify this grand unified force with gravity meaning that fundamentally there might be just one concept or one force and these four forces we see in today's low energy world are

simply different manifestations of one fundamental concept that's the goal of string theory is to figure out in its most basic way how the universe works. wealthy british scientists are. not on the. market why not. going to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cancer or a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report on our.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are on the day.

the blot on the face only deal and dozens of cyclists are swept away by police outside the stadium officers used pepper spray against members of the amateur club allegedly trying to push through a security cordon. syrian rebels claim government tanks have started moving into aleppo with the battle for the city is likely to prove a turning point. that says you want peace efforts on the ground failed to take hold . and saudi arabia said to have opened fire on crowds of protesters as clashes continue in the country with injuries to rats the shiite minority is calling for social justice and what they call discrimination by sunni arab rulers up next it's all the latest sports news with paul.

thank you very much carlo come along to the sports headlines here is what we've got coming your starting out with the twenty twelve olympic games are officially under way following a spectacular pyrotechnic opening ceremony in london. artistic merit totty sits down with the bride of sydney as the former olympic champion your lame. assesses russia's gymnastic hopes at london twenty twelve. playing the field american william a good blues level would score p.c. the top of the canadian open leaderboard up the hall where you stay. the wait is finally over the twenty twelve olympics are in full swing after a spectacular opening ceremony in london and by the end of saturday russia could have its first medalists his riches. the seven year wait is finally over for london

two thousand and twelve olympic games are fish really underway well everyone was talking about the beijing olympics four years ago and what an opening ceremony but they were able to put on it that could never be repeated again in history how the london perhaps one of exceeded that opening ceremony and all things must go to director danny boyle who put on absolutely fantastic show showing both history and culture of a great britain has given to the world over the last few centuries always a lympics have been really long awaited by the british public it became known seven years ago more than had one point the whole billion became spur whisper biggest sporting event ever been hosting the country some of the largest since for my nine hundred sixty six world cup because all the attention when i returned to the athletes for over two hundred nations competing at these games including a russian delegation and a four hundred and it was a very special moment for maria sharapova or she may be one of the world's most famous women most decorated athletes but obviously she's probably never had an

experience as great as a base to lead her country out the lympics or she's had a fantastic year completing a grand slam before grand slams by winning at the french open early it is here but what an event it would be for her if she could claim her limply gold which would be perhaps one of the greatest achievements of her career potential now does turn to the affluence and to saturday's day of competition where russia could have its first olympic medalist. so the first medals of these games will be one on saturday and russia will be among the countries trying to upset britain in the men's cycle road race it is a two hundred forty kilometer route which starts here on the mile and ends here on the mouth just outside buckingham palace brickies mark cavendish is the favorite for this race he's just back from the tour de france which finished less than a week ago also when his team is the tour de france winner bradley. but russia does have a chance with denis menchov he didn't have

a good tour de france by his standards but see this is an opportunity to make amends also when his team is alexander who didn't write the tour and by virtue of that fact might have some fresh legs for upright away what also on saturday is an opportunity for russia in the judo. will be competing in the sixty kilogram section and then in the shooting there's a trio of russians. who will be gunning for podium places so there's a great opportunity for russia here to start the olympics well although the sports minister for russia. is urging the nation not to be too expectant on the days of these olympics which you could feel if you go on you know we have chances of claiming a few medals during the first three days shooting and fencing of the best hopes and we can also win medals in the men's swimming really however we should keep in mind that the olympics start with the sports russian not really good at it but later we will gain momentum. well let's hope he does have reasons to be cheerful early on

but whatever happens i can guarantee you that if you are stood here on the mouth you will only hear voices cheering for mark cavendish although i can also i guarantee that every other team in this race will be doing now to prevent him from delivering britain's first gold medal to the queen's doorstep. now the artistic gymnastics competitions also get underway later on saturday party has spoken to two time sydney olympic champion yellowness i'm allowed to cover to find out about her memories of her sydney golds and her expectations for russia and london two thousand and twelve. was ok. because you know i don't remember having any emotions you know my first olympics getting ready for it was so tough and serious that it took all of my mental and emotional strength the realisation the tide become a limp dick champion and all the emotions came about two weeks after i got back home by that time i'd had time to recover and it dawned on me wow i won the olympic

gold it was my dream come true. goes nuts in the world but was. it where you feel it was my first olympics my first time at the olympic village the first time i saw famous athletes all around the ones i don't have seen on t.v. before i remember seeing triple olympic champion alexander carell in walk right past me and i was so impressed like wow and it felt like a festival all the time despite the tight competition schedule but a little bit of a look at our exit in the was. i've heard many times that i was called the bride of sydney but i don't know why maybe it was because i was wearing hawaii charge and won my two gold medals in it it was my lucky leotard also it could be because it was my lympics debut and it was

successful right away. was. because the coaching is my main occupation since i finished competing i coach kids in the beginning is great because just started doing gymnastics it's a very challenging and interesting job and i hope all become good at it but which i also judge international competitions i'm very nervous when i have to do this but the first time i was a judge was at the european diesel lympics festival and i was almost frantic probably even more than the participants themselves and it's not any. easy thing to do you have to learn how to do it and get used to doing it for the rats but. in a blizzard of it it's not right to make any predictions of his actions is a really high situation for the many difficulties they have more competition where is the growth of every chance of winning the result must be very good to make you free sample. and ensure your come over would definitely find it out for the all

around gold. circles and now one of host great britain's best chances of success comes in the pool of eighteen year old tom daley is expected to be one of the stars of london two thousand and twelve he reached the final of the ten meter platform diving event in beijing aged just forty fourteen and he's hoping for a home success this time around. in a competition divers either handle pressure or they don't and from a. pressure in going into competitions a long time now is that you know i've got been able to get used to and i was ahead of the olympic experience already in beijing and how it's kind of the pressure and violence but for me when you're under pressure in theory it should bring out the best of you because you've got the actual adrenaline rush. now the russian premier league has reached game week two this weekend kicking things off on friday night work who hosted new boys mordovia winning one nil the

host dominated it throughout creating plenty of opportunities and peppering david gold however the twenty six year old was in fine form and the combined with a bit of luck was able to keep the host up for the majority of the game it looked as if the visitors were going to stand firm and leave with a least a point they even had the chances to win it themselves but the deadlock was finally broken five minutes before full time as substitute george two car headed home the winner to secure three points for the man. well later on saturday the second week of the new season continues with a clash between champions and eat and in our instant petersburg elsewhere it says car travel to and car a locomotive willing to tank in moscow. meanwhile russian a basketball star andrei kirilenko swapped for n.b.a. side minnesota timberwolves kirilenko had spent a decade with the utah jazz before returning to the russian capital in december

last year that was during the n.b.a. lockout in his six month spell with the army men the thirty one year old guided them to the year only final and was also named the league's and paid his exact contract details with minnesota around no where he's believed to have signed a two year deal the timberwolves have already snapped up to relink is russia teammate alexis shred the pair are both currently representing their country at the london. and finally engulf american scope a c. has been joined at the top of the leaderboard by competitor william mcgirt after the second round of the canadian open pacey stunning course record round of sixty two on thursday was always going to be difficult to reproduce and proved as he went round in a total of sixty seven leaving him on eleven under his alongside him at the summit after also carving a sixty seven on the day while robert got i guess is alone in second a shot further back last week's open when i mean else however failed to make the

cut. well that is all from the world of sport with plenty more later here on r.t. the world weather is next followed by the headlines with carol.

if they shoot something inappropriate for public they can easily be. casualties of war ok. i wish he would have never happened but it has. been a war a t.v. camera becomes an unnecessary witness their own safety all foreign nationals

including journalists and inspectors should leave. and it's clear what happens with such witnesses i got on my site. hirsch's shooting on our.