PBS
What If the Cosmological Constant Is Not Constant?
New ReviewWe know that the universe is getting bigger. And we know that the speed that the universe is getting bigger is also getting bigger. The standard assumption is that the acceleration rate is itself constant, which will surely result in...
PBS
Does Life Need a Multiverse to Exist?
Life exists in our universe. There we go - one hopefully uncontroversial statement. Therefore our universe is capable of producing and supporting life. How am I going? Two for two? Let’s try for three: therefore there are countless...
PBS
What If Dark Energy is a New Quantum Field?
What is Quintessence? Well we know that something is up with the way the universe is expanding - there’s some kind of anti-gravitational effect that’s causing the expansion to accelerate. We don’t know what it is - just that it competes...
SciShow
The Weight of “Nothing” Could Mean Everything (to Physics)
Deep in a Sardinian mine, researchers are constructing an experiment that hopes to solve what's known as The Worst Prediction In The History of Physics, and pin down the true identity of dark energy.
PBS
Zero-Point Energy Demystified
Let's talk about the mysterious zero-point energy and what it really can, and really can't do.
PBS
The Nature of Nothing
It turns out that "nothing" is one of the most interesting somethings in all of physics.
PBS
The Vacuum Catastrophe
If vacuum energy really does have the enormous value predicted by quantum field theory then our gently expanding, geometrically flat universe shouldn't exist. This is the vacuum catastrophe.
MinutePhysics
2011 Nobel Prize - Dark Energy feat. Sean Carroll
Guest narrator Sean Carroll of Caltech describes dark energy and the acceleration of the universe, the discovery of which was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics on October 4th.
Curated Video
What Is Dark Energy Made Of? Comparing Leading Theories
New ReviewIt’s one of the biggest mysteries in science. It makes up the majority of the universe. What is dark energy? What is dark energy made of? What is quintessence? Is Dark energy the cosmological constant? Does dark energy really exist? Most...
Curated Video
The Cosmological Constant Problem
Cosmologist Justin Khoury (Penn) describes what many have described as "the worst failure of contemporary theoretical physics".
Curated Video
In Search of an Explanation
Cosmologist Justin Khoury, University of Pennsylvania, describes the enormous disparity between the observation and theoretical prediction of the vaccuum energy, commonly regarded as the worst failure of theoretical physics, and...