“First Light, from the Ends of the Earth”

John M. Kovac, Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Harvard University, delivered this lecture in September 2014. In this talk, Kovac discusses the cosmic microwave background—the oldest light we can observe—which originated shortly after the Big Bang and carries detailed clues about the composition and dynamics of the early universe. Thanks to technological advances, new telescopes have achieved remarkable sensitivity, enabling the detection of these signals with great precision, the creation of detailed maps of the universe’s infancy, and the analysis of theories concerning its earliest moments, when quantum mechanics and general relativity may have worked together to spark the Big Bang itself.

This lecture is part of the astrophysics series ‘The Science of the Cosmos, the Science in the Cosmos’, tackles the fundamental questions in contemporary astrophysics. The lectures in t

John M. Kovac, Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Harvard University, delivered this lecture in September 2014. In this talk, Kovac discusses the cosmic microwave background—the oldest light we can observe—which originated shortly after the Big Bang and carries detailed clues about the composition and dynamics of the early universe. Thanks to technological advances, new telescopes have achieved remarkable sensitivity, enabling the detection of these signals with great precision, the creation of detailed maps of the universe’s infancy, and the analysis of theories concerning its earliest moments, when quantum mechanics and general relativity may have worked together to spark the Big Bang itself.

This lecture is part of the astrophysics series ‘The Science of the Cosmos, the Science in the Cosmos’, tackles the fundamental questions in contemporary astrophysics. The lectures in the sixth edition focus on our cosmic origin, as well as the fact that gravity, the most familiar and important force in the universe’s evolution, continues to pose some challenging questions.