Lecture - Professor Bob Lambourne - Contentious Cosmology

Cosmology is, the study of the universe as a whole - including its origin and evolution. It has been a major growth point in science for several decades. Its successes have been noteable, from Hubble's discovery of the recession of distant galaxies to the detection of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) and the recognition of dark matter and dark energy. For the past thirty years there has been little doubt that the universe is in a state of expansion, initiated by a "Big Bang" that happened about 13 billion years ago. There have been disagreements about details; did the first galaxies appear before or after the first stars, what precisely is the current rate of recession of the universe, was the expansion faster or slower in the past, and what about the future - will it be endless expansion or a big crunch? Despite many challenges there has been broad…