The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries

Overview

Course No. 1816

Neil deGrasse Tyson makes sense of multiple universes, extraterrestrial life, and other great cosmological headscratchers. Everything we now know about the universe—from the behavior of quarks to the birth of galaxies—has come from people who’ve been willing to ponder the unanswerable. With the advent of modern science, great minds have turned to testing and experimentation rather than mere thought as a way of grappling with some of the universe’s most vexing dilemmas.

So what is our latest picture of some of the most inexplicable features of the universe? What still remains to be uncovered and explored by today’s scientists? “We know a lot about the universe. But there’s even more that we don’t know,” says astrophysicist and professor Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, an award-winning lecturer, and one of the world’s foremost experts on the secrets of the universe.

This course, which has been honored with a 2013 Telly Award for Outstanding Educational Program, features six self-contained lectures that transport you on a marvelous journey to the frontiers of the known (and unknown) universe and introduce you to tantalizing questions being addressed by the world’s top scientists. Engaging and fascinating, this lecture series is a wonderful entrée to scientific pursuits that lie at the very heart of the history and nature of our universe.

Course Outline

01: History’s Mysteries

Science history is filled with puzzling mysteries that were only solved with modern science’s focus on experimentation instead of thought. Here, take a closer look at concepts that were once unexplainable but, thanks to modern physics, are now better understood. You’ll focus on two such former mysteries: the existence of an invisible “aether” through which light and sound were believed to travel.

Duration: 35 min

02: The Spooky Universe

Did you know that electrons, discovered in 1897, have never actually been observed by scientists? Or that quarks can only be studied in pairs? Or that as you travel faster or find yourself in a higher gravity, time ticks more slowly for you? Delve into these and other mind-warping facts and insights about the fundamentals of matter in a lecture that covers everything from particle physics to quantum mechanics.

Duration: 32 min

03: Inexplicable Life

Join Professor Tyson on a fascinating investigation of the possible origins of life in the universe. Why was Jupiter believed to be a good environment for life in the 17th century? Why is there only one single “tree of life” on Earth instead of multiple ones? How do extremophiles help scientists study life’s genesis? Could life have come to Earth from another planet? And what do we mean when we hope to find extraterrestrial life?

Duration: 30 min

04: Inexplicable Physics

Among the many topics you’ll learn about in this lecture are the discovery of more elements on the periodic table; muon neutrinos, tao particles, and the three regimes of matter; the secrets of string theory (which offers the hope of unifying all the particles and forces of physics); and even the hypothetical experience of traveling through a black hole.

Duration: 30 min

05: Inexplicable Space

Scientists have made astounding progress in their grasp of the universe. But what remains to be understood? Investigate some perplexing aspects of space that science has uncovered in the last half-century. Learn about the mysterious trajectory of the Pioneer spacecraft (known as the “Pioneer anomaly”). Explore two of the longest-standing problems in astrophysics: dark matter and dark energy.

Duration: 32 min

06: Inexplicable Cosmology

Take a fascinating trip through dimensions higher than our own. You’ll discover how quantum physics and string theory have opened our eyes to the possibilities of quantum foam, the multiverse, antimatter, and tachyons. Also, join Dr. Tyson for a preview of the long-term fate of the universe (including the collision of galaxies, the burning out of stars, and the decay of orbits into black holes).

Duration: 35 min