Astronomy Department Whitford Lecture

Can we unravel the secrets to of the universe and construct a scientific model that is believable? Over the past forty years, we have learned that two little-understood components--dark matter and dark energy--comprise most of the known cosmos, explain the growth of all cosmic structure, and hold the key to the universe's fate. The first of these accelerates the collapse of over-dense lumps and the formation of cosmic structures while the second pushes apart the structures that have formed.