Dr. Carroll explains the subject of dark matter and dark energy in 24 lectures. He explains why scientists believe we live in a smooth, expanding universe that originated in a hot, dense state called the Big Bang. He describes the features of the infant universe that led to the large-scale structure we observe today. He takes you through the standard model of particle physics and shows how it provides the framework for understanding the interaction...

"What is everywhere, not made of atoms, and can't be seen?" Dark matter, says renowned astrophysicist David Spergel - but not everyone in the cosmological community is in agreement with him. This program presents the views of Spergel and other key figures in the debate, including Princeton University's P. James Peebles and Jeremiah Ostriker; Timothy Sumner, of Imperial College London; astrophysicist Mordechai Milgrom; and Saul Perlmutter, a member...

"Sixty-six million years ago, an object the size of a city descended from space to crash into Earth, creating a devastating cataclysm that killed off the dinosaurs, along with three-quarters of the other species on the planet. What was its origin? In Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, Lisa Randall proposes it was a comet that was dislodged from its orbit as the Solar System passed through a disk of dark matter embedded in the Milky Way. In a sense, it...

Evalyn Gates transports us to the edge of science to explore the tool that unlocks the secrets of dark matter and dark energy. Based on the theory of general relativity, gravitational lensing, or 'Einstein's Telescope', is enabling discoveries that are taking us towards the next revolution in scientific thinking--one that may change our understanding of where the Universe came from and where it is going.