Autobiographical epic in Wordsworth's footsteps on b.b.c. Radio 4 available no on b.b.c. Sir. This is b.b.c. . Extra. It's 2 o'clock the mark of the void continues in a moment the Irish novelist Paul Murray's book set in the world of art finance and petty crime in post-crash Ireland then we'll tackle small big questions in a history of the infinite the cosmos is at $215.23 we return to the story of ash and Angele in m.k.s. Remand epic sets during the British Raj The fog of billions and the hour concludes as we take to the skies with Mark Van Hanukah the man who truly loves his job sky fairing a Jenny with a pilot is at 245. To Dublin now where down on his luck writer poor appears to be struggling with his novel about the financial world the banker Claude Martindale is doing his best to help and hopes to be the inspiration for the book's hero but is pulls interest in the bank of Torah been there a little more suspicious and it seems the mark and the void is read by Peter Serafin which. Thing to really. Think you can get them to. Be. When the writer arrives at the office next morning with him is a great hulking creature almost 7 foot tall with a sloping forehead and brawny 4 arms introduces him to me as Igor Stroom a poet professor of contemporary art and member of the celebrated Vladivostok circle is going to be helping me with some of the more conceptual stuff Paul explains for the rest of the day the 2 of them spend their time muttering and secluded corners was slinking around the office knocking on wards poking at ceiling tiles tracing with their fingers mysterious vectors from the floor up to the power supply the fact is that while the romantic image is of the writer working away in solitude it's often much more of a collaborative activity Paul tells me it's quite common to draft in a colleague to help out with elements you're less sure about I have heard about such practices in other art forms but I confess that I have not encountered it in literature before it's kind of a trade secret Paul says and what is Igor specialism places he's going to be concentrating on the location details so he was wondering whether he might be able to see some floor plans of the back floor plans I say surprised to help him with his descriptive passages at lunchtime Paul merely picks of his food and looks out the window you're not happy with the project I say my heart sinking there's nothin there Claude he says I knew it wouldn't work deep down I knew it there must be something we can do I say some way to salvage it I don't see what. He sighs put his head in his hands readers like to feel a connection with the characters they're reading about we need to give your character more agency we need to get him doing something like walk something dramatic everybody he says slowly even the guy with the most boring job in the world at some point finds himself in a situation where he has to make a choice a choice between good and bad that moment when the clock strikes 13 when everything else drops away that's where we need to put you he stroked his chin Ok how about rather than the every man just working in the back instead we have him rob the bank but already the every man is paid very well for work that is quite legal I say what if he wants some than his money can't buy How about he falls in love with with a waitress that girl there for instance she's sold 3 she's exotic she's a struggling artist a woman like that as soon as she appears the story's bumped up a couple again she's an artist well yet he points around the room at the various Similac or those Ahern's Ariadne or Keira Peters how do you know because I asked or see it's a good twist isn't it our lonely bored overpaid banker runs up against this beautiful post impoverished painter he goes on warming to his new theme he finds they have something or other in common doesn't matter what it is French philosophy say next thing he knows he's fallen head over heels in love with her. He's breaking out of his sterile world of Norm Bers experiencing feelings he hasn't had in years but how is he going to win her heart he looks at me waiting for a response I find I am gripped in spite of myself how by robbing the bank there must be easier ways to do it I say what about their shared interest in French philosopher Paul rolls his eyes heavily Jesus Claude Ok say he finds out a father is going to die unless he gets an extremely expensive operation so expensive even the banker doesn't have enough money to pay for it so he robs the bank the real question his voice lowers is how he does it he looks at me expectantly Where's the safe in this place well there is no save I say Paul stares at me for a long moment so where do you keep the money there is no money I say well kind of bank has no money a merchant or investment bank I say Paul goes very quiet right it was supposed but there are other ways for you to spice up the story I say hurriedly for example maybe there is a fire in transaction house and I am the bank of Torah bondo fire warden so I must make sure everyone escapes that's a good idea Paul agrees rising unsteadily to his feet a very good idea or we could keep the love story with the waitress and the French philosophy but leave out the robbery that's certainly worth looking at porn says in an awed voice. Tell your what. I'm going to take the rest of the afternoon off to think about these suggestions are yours see you tomorrow I say. But Paul does not come in tomorrow nor does he appear the next day maybe his news has deserted him you're going says I am his muse I point out I have not deserted him I am waiting for him right here yes it is perhaps the less familiar situation of the artist deserving his muse Yogen frowns then something happens that puts the book out of everyone's mind except mine and all stuff email arrives from Puerto blankly a new c.e.o. The email consists of 2 words think counter intuitive I read aloud Porter's memo coincides with a golden streak for the bank such as I have never experienced before Europe teeters ever closer to the brink of some unimaginable financial apocalypse whole streets in Greece but. But our share price lurches up and up again yet to me these successes seem somehow insubstantial without pulled everything has begun to slide out of focus you've tried calling him. Hundreds of times it is obvious what happened I snap he realized the novel wasn't going to work why wouldn't it work because what we do is empty meaningless no one in the world could find it interesting unless they were being paid. Diving into her back she pulls out for love of a clan look the publishers address is right here asterisk press Craughwell Road London they all know where he's the man who answers tells me that while asterisk press did indeed publish Paul's 1st novel he hasn't replied to any correspondence for several years there are 10 men listed in the Dublin telephone directory who have the same name as the writer a speak to a butcher an upholsterer a sound engineer a data miner and a retired Army captain who served with the United Nations in the Biafran War What about that number there. Points to an uncrossed name at the top of the list it's disconnected if this was a book where would the person you're looking for turn out to be it's always the place with a disconnected fun right she keeps prodding me until I looked the address up it turns out that 3 to 3 Super Bia is only 10 minutes walk from the center and so mostly to mollify her I agreed to pay to visit. I follow the tram tracks in the direction of the train station until I pass out of the Center after a while there are no cars no people just boarded up windows incoherent graffiti to try to so random it seems deliberate and then in the midst of this desolation I come upon a large glittering tower to say it appears out of place would be an understatement from one side of the building hangs an enormous hoarding urging super enter beauty . The lobby is full of silence and dust gaps have appeared in the Morrish tiling and the name plates of the metal letter boxes are empty the lift is not working so I mount the stairs in intermittent light outside apartment number 323 I lift my hand to knock and then I hear a voice you're pawned it it says That's right says another voice a woman's geezer's clits Yeah the man sounds very like por those tone is different from any I have heard him use well where's the morning what money the morning from my damn writing desk that's what money it's gone I bought food idiot I bought food so we don't starve I hear footsteps storming across the floor the door is flung open and Paul and I find ourselves looking at each other Oh Oh Oh Oh Claude I didn't expect to see you he says in a tone of strained jollity I was just in the neighborhood I say in a similar tone for a moment we stare at each other then realizing he has no choice Paul makes an ushering gesture won't you comment Claude this is my wife. Pulsars darling this is Claude the man who's been very kindly helping me out with my project these last few weeks charmed the woman says sullenly she has platinum blond hair and a simmering expression you did not come to work I say and so I started to worry that that I'm sorry. Something is watching me from under the table poor extricates a small boy with grubby knees How long have you been down there who's this I ask this is my song Remington Paul says. Who is fired Remington whispers to me confidentially I decide the best thing is to go but as I make my way out of the apartment something catches my eye on a stack of loose papers scattered over an approximately desk sized area of floor sits the read notebook I glance over my shoulder clips here is issuing a torrent of foreign words Paul is shouting that he will have her deported nobody pays any attention to me as I lift the notebook I go to the 1st page it is blank I turn to the next page it is blank then I come to a sequence of what seem to be measurements and diagrams that are ominously familiar a few pages later heading in capitals whose hour mark well what are you doing with that pole seizes the notebook the mark the patsy the mug the sucker LIGO go silent and swift as a shark the truth now surges into view there's no novel I say what are you talking about of course there's a novel and Igor he is not an experimental poet years past exterminator could see as. Pong a hand on my arm. Look it's true I needed something to tide us over but I've got something up my sleeve so big it will make all of us rich rich I shake him loose and open the door and walk through the darkness to the stairwell. There's no need to evolve Dorothy's whole cries after me as I began largess and. What. Will it. Peter Serafin if it was reading the mark in the void by Paul Mari it was a bridge by Sarah Davis and produced by Kenny Thomson The story continues when despite Claude's devastating discovery he's still hopeful that pool could help him get closer to Ariadne that's a 2 Tamara. This seems b.b.c. Radio. Adrian Mole considers the way philosophers and scientists have looked at the universe throughout the ages from the writings of the Greek philosophers to the latest theories of cosmologists today's episode over history of the infinite is the cosmos. On a clear moonless night a faint patch can be seen in the constellation and draw meter This is the Andromeda nebula it's a galaxy of about 100000 1000000 stars it's the furthest object visible to the naked eye it's light traveling fast enough to circum not be gave the earth more than 7 times in one second takes 2000000 years to reach us yet by comparison with other galaxies it's a close neighbor. The distances are absolutely mind numbing Even so they're still only finite and that brings us to the central question of this program where if at all does the concept of infinity have application to physical reality for many of us nothing is more evoke a tip of the infinite than looking up at the night sky but how appropriate is this is the number of stars infinite space infinite is anything in nature infinite. Ever since the time of the ancient Greeks philosophers and scientists have pondered these questions in the 4th century b.c. Our kiters a friend of Plato advanced a very primitive and very natural argument that the universe is spatially infinite . If I am at the extremity of the heaven of the fixed stars and I stretch out my hand. It is absurd to suppose that I could not. And if I can what is outside must be either body or space. We may then in the same way get to the outside of that again and so on and if there is always a new place to which the stuff may be held out this clearly involves extension without limit. Startle writing a little later resisted our kiters his argument according to Aristotle although it's true that the universe can't be bounded by anything outside it nevertheless it's only spatially finite Now this is a very difficult idea for us to grasp but would better not dismiss it out of her and as we will see it's an idea that has become a staple of contemporary cosmology how then do we are betrayed between our kiters and Aristotle the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes writing in the 17th century didn't think that there was anything to arbitrate own neither the view that the universe is infinite nor the view that the universe is finite has any grounding in what we can observe so neither view has any meaning. When it is asked if the world is finite or infinite there is nothing in the mind corresponding to the term world many people still think in this way John Barrow professor of Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University distinguishes between questions about the age and size of the entire universe which are at best matters of idle speculation at worst meaning less and genuinely scientific questions about what we can observe if you ask the question is the universe infinitely old Did it have a beginning the answer to. Is that well our little piece of the universe the visible part did have a beginning but whether the entire universe which may be infinite in extent had a beginning there is no reason why it short. So it's we've come to appreciate the fact that although the universe is potentially infinite in size we can only ever see a finite part of it and we've got to distinguish between our observable universe or the visible universe and the entire universe. And so when you hear someone saying Well I think the universe is infinite all version of earth is finite if they're talking about the entire universe this is a philosophical statement it can never be confirmed but suppose we confine attention to just that part of the universe on which empirical evidence can be brought to bear can't we legitimately ask whether this is infinite or finite even if neither alternative is directly observable. The great English scientist Isaac Newton certainly thought so he argued in the 17th century that the matter in the universe must be infinite on the grounds that if it were finite and if as he also thought matter beyond the solar system was stable then it couldn't maintain itself in gravitational Librium and so couldn't avoid collapsing into its center it seems to me that if all the matter in the universe were evenly scattered throughout all the heavens and the whole space throughout which this matter was scattered was finite the matter on the outside of the space would by its gravity tend towards all the matter on the inside and by consequence fall down into the middle of the whole space and there compose one great spherical mass Nevertheless the broad consensus today is that the matter in the universe is only finite and indeed that space itself is only finite albeit unbounded just as Aristotle thought this is the idea that I said earlier is very difficult for us to grasp how can space be both finite and unbounded Joe Dunkley professor of astrophysics at Oxford University gives one way of understanding this . One idea for what space could be like is something a bit like the surface of the earth itself because if you imagine you're an ant calling all around the surface of the earth or even a person walking around the surface of the there's no edge to that you can go off in any direction you like and you end up coming back to where you started you can walk or way around the surface of the earth and you return back home if you can cross the oceans. And so that that surface we would say of the earth is finite but unbounded it doesn't go on forever it's not infinite in size but there isn't an edge to it there isn't a beginning there is an end and it's possible that space itself that could also be like the surface of the earth so that you could go off in one direction out in space and eventually come back to where you started but if space were of to like the surface of the earth how would that money 1st itself actually when we think about it as physicists or mathematicians $1.00 of the ways we work out if something is curved is we actually can draw a triangle of it and we see what the angles add up to a normal triangle that you join a flat piece of paper the angles add up to about $180.00 degrees but if you draw try doing a triangle on an orange the angles that up to more maps and do we find that when we measure the angles in triangles those angles add up to something other than $180.00 degrees now it's possible and actually our current data set more in favor of it that space itself is not that space itself is more like a flat piece of paper if you drew a triangle in space it was without that add up to the new one at hundreds of degree it's worth mentioning that the child goes under investigation in a pretty bag they have to be otherwise any difference from $180.00 degrees jus to the Kevin space wouldn't show up so it wouldn't be good enough to investigate triangles that can fit on a sheet of a 4. They've got to be considerably bigger than that we're talking about billions of light years where a light year is the distance light can travel in a whole year like it's incredibly fast so when we're thinking about the behavior of space where it talking about things on a normal scales much bigger than the size of our solar system because we wouldn't be able to figure out things like is space infinite or finite when is it curved like an orange or flat like a piece of paper that we couldn't do that just from our solar system the current evidence seems to tell in favor of flat space they're not curved space even so who it's still possible that space is fine and indeed it's not only possible that space is finite it's possible that space is expanding over time and many cosmologists believe that that's precisely what it is doing this is in part because there's evidence that distant galaxies are moving away from us what form does this evidence take. Well it's a bit like the evidence should have had an ambulance was moving away from you if you could only hear the siren. The siren gets patron fainter of course but it also appears to have a lower and lower page this is in effect due to the way in which the movement of the ambulance affects the length of the sound waves emanating from it there's a similar effect in the case of the galaxy. What's more we can use the same evidence to extrapolate backwards. Just as we can conclude that the galaxies will get further and further apart in the future so 2 we can conclude that they were closer and closer together in the past right back to a point where absolutely everything was concentrated in one spot and a gigantic cosmic explosion gave rise to the universe as we know it today. A finite Liebig universe which began at a particular point in time and finally long ago this might be thought to be music to the as of most scientists for on the whole scientists like to evade the infinite as John Barrow explains in most areas of science and engineering if an infinity pops up in an equation or you predict that something is infin