Instructional Video14:34
PBS

Is Dark Energy Getting Stronger?

12th - Higher Ed
The power of Dark Energy may be increasing as the universe ages. Subtle clues are emerging that the accepted model for the nature of dark energy and dark matter may not be all that. We saw the first such clue recently in our recent...
Instructional Video13:49
PBS

Electroweak Theory and the Origin of the Fundamental Forces

12th - Higher Ed
Our universe seems pretty complicated. We have a weird zoo of elementary particles, which interact through very different fundamental forces. But some extremely subtle clues in nature have led us to believe that the forces of nature were...
Instructional Video13:27
PBS

Can We Survive the Destruction of the Earth? ft. Neal Stephenson

12th - Higher Ed
What do we do to protect ourselves from extinction level events? And what if some of those events are unavoidable? Can we survive adrift in space? Find out in this episode of Space Time.
Instructional Video15:33
PBS

Could We Terraform Mars?

12th - Higher Ed
We already have the technology to bring humans safely to Mars and set up small settlements - or at least could do within a generation. But those settlements will need to be cocooned - shielded against the deadly cold, intense radiation,...
Instructional Video13:21
PBS

Could the Universe End by Tearing Apart Every Atom?

12th - Higher Ed
The universe is expanding, and that expansion is accelerating. We don’t know what’s causing that acceleration, but that hasn’t stopped us from giving it a name. We call this unknown influence dark energy. The observed acceleration is,...
Instructional Video15:42
PBS

Are Cosmic Strings Cracks in the Universe?

12th - Higher Ed
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...
Instructional Video15:57
PBS

How Far Beyond Earth Could Humanity Spread?

12th - Higher Ed
We humans have always been explorers. The great civilizations that have arisen across the world are owed to our restless ancestors. These days, there’s not much of Earth left to explore. But if we look up, there’s a whole universe out...
Instructional Video12:30
PBS

Did Time Start at the Big Bang?

12th - Higher Ed
Our universe started with the big bang. But only for the right definition of “our universe”. And of “started” for that matter. In fact, probably the Big Bang is nothing like what you were taught.

A hundred years ago we discovered...
Instructional Video8:55
PBS

Does Time Cause Gravity?

12th - Higher Ed
We know that gravity must cause clocks to run slow on the basis of logical consistency. And we know that gravity DOES cause clocks to run slow based on many brilliant experiments. But I never explained WHY or HOW gravity causes the flow...
Instructional Video10:53
PBS

Planck's Constant and The Origin of Quantum Mechanics | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

12th - Higher Ed
Planck's Length is the length below which the concept of length loses its meaning. What exactly does that mean and what are the incredible implications this fact has upon our reality? To find out check out this episode of Space Time...
Instructional Video12:57
PBS

What’s Wrong With the Big Bang Theory? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

12th - Higher Ed
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...
Instructional Video5:56
PBS

The Quasar from The Beginning of Time | STELLAR

12th - Higher Ed
Recently, the oldest quasar ever seen was discovered by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, the Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, as well as the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona. In this first episode of...
Instructional Video9:58
PBS

How the Quantum Eraser Rewrites the Past | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

12th - Higher Ed
Causality is meant to move in one direction: forward. But the Quantum Eraser experiment seems to reverse causality. How and why can this happen and what are the implications of this experiment on how we understand Quantum Mechanics and...
Instructional Video8:25
PBS

The Trebuchet Challenge | Space Time

12th - Higher Ed
Kinetic and potential energy are defined as combinations of more basic quantities: position, velocity and mass. These combinations are chosen so that their sum is conserved. It’s actually remarkable that there’s any such combination of...
Instructional Video13:10
PBS

Will the Universe Expand Forever?

12th - Higher Ed
Throughout history, there has been much speculation about what the fate of the universe would be. Many theorized that the universe would eventually succumb to the pull of gravity, and reverse its expansion in what was being called ‘The...
Instructional Video11:10
PBS

The Real Science of the EHT Black Hole

12th - Higher Ed
So, how do you take a picture of a black hole? The beast in question is the supermassive black hole in the center of this – the M87 elliptical galaxy. It has an estimated mass of several billion times that of the Sun, which gives it an...
Instructional Video12:29
PBS

The Cosmic Dark Ages

12th - Higher Ed
In astronomy we study things that are very far away. It’s a powerful challenge because even the brightest objects are almost impossibly faint when you view them from the other side of the universe. But there’s an up side. If the light...
Instructional Video9:10
PBS

Pulsar Starquakes Make Fast Radio Bursts? + Challenge Winners! | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

12th - Higher Ed
Fast Radio Bursts were puzzling physicist for quite some time. They were thought to be the result of large cataclysmic events such as supernovae, but this theory was proven wrong when it was discovered that they could repeat themselves....
Instructional Video12:05
PBS

First Detection of Light from Behind a Black Hole

12th - Higher Ed
How do you see the unseeable - how do you explore the inescapable? Our cleverest astronomers have figured out ways to catch light that skims the very edge of black holes. Let’s find out what they learned.
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A few weeks ago a...
Instructional Video8:37
PBS

Planet X Discovered?? + Challenge Winners!

12th - Higher Ed
Some funky orbits near the Kuiper Belt are hinting towards a brand new planet, the elusive ‘Planet X.’ Our friends Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin of Caltech are working hard to finally spot the potential gas giant through powerful...
Instructional Video13:53
PBS

Our Antimatter, Mirrored, Time-Reversed Universe

12th - Higher Ed
The foundations of quantum theory rests on its symmetries. For example, it should be impossible to distinguish our universe from one that is that is the perfect mirror opposite in charge, handedness, and the direction of time. But one by...
Instructional Video13:12
PBS

Building Black Holes in a Lab

12th - Higher Ed
Black holes are about the worst subjects for direct study in the universe. But at this stage, it’s all we can do to convince ourselves of their existence. Actually studying the physics of real black holes is much, much harder. I mean, we...
Instructional Video11:22
PBS

How Black Holes Kill Galaxies

12th - Higher Ed
Black holes are really only dangerous if you get too close. Ha, who am I kidding. It turns out they may be responsible for ending star formation across the entire universe.
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When we first realized that black holes could have...
Instructional Video10:19
PBS

The Quantum Experiment that Broke Reality | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios

12th - Higher Ed
The double slit experiment radically changed the way we understand reality. Find out what the ramifications of this experiment were and how we can use it to better comprehend our universe.