PBS
The Holographic Universe Explained
The holographic principle emerged from many subtle clues – clues discovered over decades of theoretical exploration of the universe. Over the past several months on Space Time, we’ve seen those close clues, and we’ve built a the...
PBS
Loop Quantum Gravity Explained
The holy grail of physics is to connect our understanding of the tiny scales of atoms and subatomic particles with that of the vast scales of planets, galaxies, and the entire universe. To connect quantum physics with Einstein’s general...
PBS
Why String Theory is Wrong
There’s this idea that beauty is a powerful guide to truth in the mathematics of physical theory. String theory is certainly beautiful in the eyes of many physicists. Beautiful enough to pursue even if it’s wrong? Hermann Weyl once said,...
PBS
The Truth About Beauty in Physics
The great physicist Hermann Weyl once said: "My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful, but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful." But is this actually good advice for doing physics?
PBS
Does Gravity Require Extra Dimensions?
It’s been 120 years since Henry Cavendish measured the gravitational constant with a pair of lead balls suspended by a wire. The fundamental nature of gravity still eludes our best minds - but those secrets may be revealed by turning...
PBS
Are Cosmic Strings Cracks in the Universe?
Reality has cracks in it. Universe-spanning filaments of ancient Big Bang energy, formed from topological defects in the quantum fields, aka cosmic strings. They have subatomic thickness but prodigious mass and they lash through space at...
PBS
What’s Wrong With the Big Bang Theory? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios
Now that we have a primer on the aspects of the Big Bang Theory that we know definitely happened, let’s look further into what we don’t yet know, and how the theory could progress in the future. Since there is a discrepancy between...
PBS
Are Black Holes Actually Fuzzballs?
Black holes are a paradox. They are paradoxical because they simultaneously must exist but can’t, and so they break physics as we know it. Many physicists will tell you that the best way to fix broken physics is with string. String...
PBS
Why String Theory is Right
Some see string theory as the one great hope for a theory of everything - that it will unite quantum mechanics and gravity and so unify all of physics into one glorious theory.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Chris Anderson (TED): Questions no one knows the answers to
TED curator Chris Anderson shares his obsession with questions that no one (yet) knows the answers to. A short intro leads into two questions: Why can't we see evidence of alien life? And how many universes are there?
TED Talks
Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions
Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can -- and should -- be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a...
TED Talks
TED: Making sense of string theory | Brian Greene
Physicist Brian Greene explains superstring theory, the idea that minscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe.
PBS
The Black Hole Information Paradox
Black holes are the result of absolute gravitational collapse of a massive body: a point of hypothetical infinite density surrounded by an event horizon. At that horizon time is frozen and the fabric of space itself cascades inwards at...
TED Talks
TED: Computing a theory of all knowledge | Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica, talks about his quest to make all knowledge computational -- able to be searched, processed and manipulated. His new search engine, Wolfram Alpha, has no lesser goal than to model and explain the...
TED Talks
Chris Anderson (TED): Questions no one knows the answers to
TED curator Chris Anderson shares his obsession with questions that no one (yet) knows the answers to. A short intro leads into two questions: Why can't we see evidence of alien life? And how many universes are there?
PBS
The Black Hole Entropy Enigma
Black Holes should have no entropy, but they in fact hold most of the entropy in the universe. Let's figure this out.
TED Talks
Brian Greene: Is our universe the only universe?
Is there more than one universe? In this visually rich, action-packed talk, Brian Greene shows how the unanswered questions of physics (starting with a big one: What caused the Big Bang?) have led to the theory that our own universe is...
PBS
How to Detect Extra Dimensions
On this Space Time Journal Club we look at how gravitational waves can be used to search for extra dimensions of space!
SciShow
How Knots Help Us Understand the World
Knots are everywhere in our daily lives, but a new branch of mathematics is taking things to the next level.
TED Talks
Charles Fleischer: All things are Moleeds
In a presentation that can only be described as epic, comedian Charles Fleischer delivers a hysterical send-up of a time-honored TED theme: the map. Geometry, numbers, charts and stamp art also factor in (somehow), as he weaves together...
TED Talks
Sean Carroll: Distant time and the hint of a multiverse
Cosmologist Sean Carroll attacks -- in an entertaining and thought-provoking tour through the nature of time and the universe -- a deceptively simple question: Why does time exist at all? The potential answers point to a surprising view...
TED Talks
Gian Giudice: Why our universe might exist on a knife-edge
The biggest surprise of discovering the Higgs boson? That there were no surprises. Gian Giudice talks us through a problem in theoretical physics: what if the Higgs field exists in an ultra-dense state that could mean the collapse of all...
SciShow
SciShow Quiz Show: Eons Edition!
Hank Green presides over this battle between the other two hosts of Eons. They know dinosaurs, but how much do they really know about industrial grease?
TED Talks
Brian Cox: CERN's supercollider
"Rock-star physicist" Brian Cox talks about his work on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Discussing the biggest of big science in an engaging, accessible way, Cox brings us along on a tour of the massive project.