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This Is What the Birth of the Universe Sounded Like | Mark Whittle | TED

What sound came after the Big Bang? Astronomer Mark Whittle takes us back to the infant cosmos, where massive sound waves pulsed through primordial gas in a pattern that’s still traceable across the universe today. Working with sound artist Ander Mikalson and composer Caroline Shaw, he turns those ancient tones into a glorious, awe-inspiring choral…

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What sound came after the Big Bang? Astronomer Mark Whittle takes us back to the infant cosmos, where massive sound waves pulsed through primordial gas in a pattern that’s still traceable across the universe today. Working with sound artist Ander Mikalson and composer Caroline Shaw, he turns those ancient tones into a glorious, awe-inspiring choral work. (Recorded at TED2026 on April 15, 2026)

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26 Comments

26 Comments

  1. @julianshepherd2038

    September 17, 2026 at 11:02 am

    A vacuum
    Not like a Dyson
    It would have been a Hoover back then

    • @JesterMoon-l3i

      September 17, 2026 at 9:03 pm

      🎉

  2. @anonymoussource7999

    September 17, 2026 at 11:08 am

    The big bang sounded like a big fart 💩💥💥💥

  3. @GardenLives

    September 17, 2026 at 11:58 am

    Sentient atoms now peer back to deeply understand their own chaotic birth, stubbornly ignoring their inevitable proton decay

  4. @NeathVideos

    September 17, 2026 at 12:35 pm

    The big silence 🤫

  5. @lane9043

    September 17, 2026 at 12:47 pm

    So cool that they had a choir perform this sound. If the universe were sentient, I’m sure it would be a startling and give it a fond nostalgia.

  6. @wildman2012

    September 17, 2026 at 1:17 pm

    Everyone knows it was “Ka-Blammmo!”

  7. @YohannesKebede-n8y

    September 17, 2026 at 3:09 pm

    I definitely didn’t have manifesting figured out. I kept trying different techniques, getting nowhere and wondering what I was doing wrong. Amara Lorne arche type quiz helped me understand that I was using methods that simply didn’t match me. Nothing magically changed overnight, but it finally gave me some direction. It’s free, so you might as well try it.

  8. @lisaashely7498

    September 17, 2026 at 3:29 pm

    Repping Richmond, VA here. Totally would have gone there to watch that if I had known of it. Awesome. 👏🏻

  9. @HarryGuit

    September 17, 2026 at 4:52 pm

    Sorry but that makes no sense. The Big Bang couldn‘t produce a sound because there was no atmosphere, no gases of any kind. You can take anything that produces some back and forth movement and feed it into an amplifier and speaker.

    • @Barbreck1

      September 17, 2026 at 11:46 pm

      Yeah, ignoring the fact that it never happened, your logic is sound.

  10. @JesterMoon-l3i

    September 17, 2026 at 9:03 pm

    Take A Moment Relax and enjoy a wordsmith at play, thank you for sharing TED

  11. @andreaguess9718

    September 17, 2026 at 9:58 pm

    God’s voice would make a pretty big sound.

  12. @BrianMcInnis87

    September 17, 2026 at 11:04 pm

    The *known* universe. The surely infinitesimal portion of the universe that we’ve mapped to some degree. Not to be confused with the actual entire universe.

  13. @Алия-з5щ

    September 18, 2026 at 2:19 am

    This is too complicated for me, is it because my level is B2-C1, or because I’m not clever enough to understand? Well, something I understood, but it feels like most part I didn’t hear or understand

    • @imawafer

      September 18, 2026 at 5:06 am

      He used a lot of scientific terms. For an English learner, this would probably be on the upper end of difficulty in english. Goodluck in your learning!

  14. @stickman4087

    September 18, 2026 at 3:13 am

    I love when they talk about “the big bang” as if it’s not just a theory

  15. @24malay

    September 18, 2026 at 8:50 am

    The first sounds was A, U and M

  16. @twelvestitches984

    September 18, 2026 at 1:56 pm

    There was no big bang. Gravity would never allow it to happen.

    When can we get back to real science?

  17. @Alan-xk6iz

    September 18, 2026 at 4:54 pm

    There was a sound just before the big bang – it was “Oh no!”

  18. @AnnBartlett-p5d

    September 18, 2026 at 5:21 pm

    Does the Big Bang make a noise if there is no one listening.

  19. @KMHill

    September 18, 2026 at 8:08 pm

    Why not provide the title of the work by Caroline Shaw for choir and organ? 🙁

  20. @Bythirteen

    September 18, 2026 at 10:44 pm

    Whoa, good stuff!

  21. @AdriansRevenge

    September 19, 2026 at 9:46 am

    Great BS…

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