Surely one of the biggest ideas in the universe has to be the universe itself, no? Or, as I claim, the very fact that the universe is comprehensible — as an abstract philosophical point, but also as the empirical observation that the universe we see is a pretty simple place, at least on the largest scales. We focus here mostly on the thermal history — how the constituents of the universe evolve as space expands and the temperature goes down.
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe | 22. Cosmology
And here is the associated Q&A video:
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe | Q&A 22 - Cosmology
What can we say about the size of the entire universe vs the observable universe?
And a related question – given that we have a pretty good idea about the amount of mass in the universe, is it reasonable/coherent to locate a center of mass of the universe? Might there be people somewhere in the universe (observable to us or not) where half the night sky is full of galaxies and the other half is just empty?
3 lectures by Alan Guth on inflation. The last lecture focuses on entropy, probability and the arrow of time and reflects work done by professor Carroll.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS47PigUZdw&list=PLyF3OMOiy3nFu0tPwFN8f7RMRMP31ZLxD&index=33
Not sure why the Guth talk isn’t showing up…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Bhz9G8J0VI&list=PLyF3OMOiy3nFu0tPwFN8f7RMRMP31ZLxD&index=31