Newstalk Magazine is available now for free from the Apple app store.

13.7 billion. Trying to imagine how huge that number is has driven me to frustration on more than one occasion. Oddly, it’s something I do quite often.  

In science, 13.7 billion is a number that comes up quite a lot. It’s the number of years our universe has existed (give or take a few hundred million years) and for me, that makes it a worthwhile number to try and wrap my head around.

One day last summer, I was walking in the Dublin Docklands, heading towards town from the O2. I didn’t have headphones, so I started doing maths instead (I’ve really lost all cool points by now, haven’t I?). I knew I had just over a kilometre to walk so I tried to figure out what would happen if I marked out 13.7 billion years over 1.37 kilometres. So that would make 1 kilometre equal to 10 billion years… and each metre would be 10 million years. Straight away I started figuring out where everything would fit in that 1.37 kilometres.

“The Big Bang; that can happen at the O2… the first stars form about 50 metres after that… that would mean the Samuel Beckett Bridge marks the formation of our own solar system… and, if we cross over to the south side, that would make the present day fit somewhere on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay.”

Yes, that actually happened.

The Formation of the Solar System. Photo: Maurice Kelliher and Shaun O’Boyle

I went home, spent way too long on Google Maps, and ended up with a scaled down timeline of our universe’s 13.7 billion year history mapped out along a short walk through Dublin’s Docklands. I told artist Maurice Kelliher about my ‘universe walk’ and we figured it might make for quite an interesting science documentary. Fortunately, Newstalk and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland agreed.

So in You Are Here, I took that 1.37 km walk with four scientists who I never get tired of listening to—four people who talk about science with a clarity and enthusiasm that is infectious. Starting at the Big Bang, I plotted out the origins of the first stars and galaxies with physicist Peter Gallagher, who explained things like how an entire universe can pop into existence.

Solar Physicist Peter Gallagher describes the “soup of energy” that turned into mater

I walked along the violent and volatile history of planet Earth with geologist Jane Chadwick, who is the only person I know can start a sentence with, “Any time I’ve been in an active volcano…”

Geologist Jane Chadwick explains the formation of volcanoes

Aoife McLysaght helped me map out the evolution of life on Earth, from the first single-celled life to slime moulds and things with tentacles, and finishing up on humans and all of the other life we share this planet with.

Scientist Aoife McLysaght talks about the speed at which life evolved on Earth

Then I walked the last small (very small) stretch with Ian Brunswick from Science Gallery, to talk about the origins of human culture and why we try to figure these things out in the first place.

Then I went back to Maurice and asked, “Okay, I have all this great science… what now?” The story is huge, epic even. The sound that accompanied it had to be cinematic and fit the scale of what these four people are talking about. Choosing music that balanced a sense of wonder and fun with a sense of drama and suspense, Maurice crafted a score that connected contemporary composers to 1950s sci-fi soundtracks. It was like the music brought the science to life—Aoife’s description of life evolving and becoming more complex was accompanied by the chaos of John Cage giving way to the ordered patterns of Steve Reich (with some B-movie music thrown in for good measure!).

The Origin of Life. Photo: Maurice Kelliher and Shaun O’Boyle

Now that 1.37 kilometre stretch of the Dublin Docklands overlaps with this (virtual) map of the universe, filled with the fascinating facts and stories shared by Peter, Jane, Aoife and Ian. And, when the documentary is broadcast on Newstalk, on Saturday 1st of March, it will be brought to life with an evocative and immersive score.

I hope that when people listen to it, they get a sense of the amazing scale of our universe, and have fun with the idea of going through a scaled down journey through time (whether it’s along the River Liffey or on their own street*). I hope that they can close their eyes, take a mental stroll for an hour, and enjoy stories about black holes, meteor bombardments, and marvel in the fact that we happen to be members of the only species on this planet that has ever figured out where the universe came from.

*If you would like to take that same walk, I’ll be posting a map on www.shaunoboyle.org.

You can listen to the full documentary below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Shaun O'Boyle is a scientist and science communicator
Maurice Kelliher is a performance-maker and occasional documentarian

This article originally appeared in Newstalk Magazine for iPad in February, for more details go here.