Cosmic Queries – Origins of the Universe, with Janna Levin

In this archival episode of StarTalk Radio, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice welcome astrophysicist and author Janna Levin to explore deep cosmic questions from the newly released book *Cosmic Queries*. The conversation dives into the fundamental composition of the universe—revealing that visible matter makes up less than 5% of the cosmos, with dark matter and dark energy dominating the rest. Levin explains how dark matter, though invisible and non-interactive with light, exerts gravitational influence, while dark energy drives the accelerating expansion of the universe. The hosts ponder existential questions: why matter outweighed antimatter in the early universe, whether we’re an anomaly in a cosmos mostly made of invisible stuff, and if other universes could exist with entirely different physical laws. They also discuss the limits of human technology—like the Large Hadron Collider—versus the natural particle accelerators of the cosmos, and the tantalizing possibility of extra dimensions, quantum vacuum fluctuations, and string theory. The episode ends with a philosophical reflection on how future civilizations might lose access to the evidence of the Big Bang, echoing the fragility of scientific knowledge across time.