278 - Priyamvada Natarajan: The Mystery of Dark Matter

Priyamvada Natarajan is the Joseph S. and Sophia S. Fruton Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Physics at Yale University, where she is also the Chair of Astronomy. Priya researches broadly across astrophysics and cosmology; some topics she has worked on include gravitational lensing, black hole physics, the philosophy of science, and dark matter. In this conversation, Priya and Robinson largely stick to the latter. They discuss her interest in cosmology writ large, as well as how the scientific community tackles the unknown. Priya’s most recent book is Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas that Reveal the Cosmos (Yale, 2016).

Mapping the Heavens: a.co/d/02HPcMB1

OUTLINE
00:00 A Paradox of Cosmology
06:16 Investigating Invisibilia
11:25 The Sociology of Astrophysics
16:52 Phenomenology in Physics
19:47 What Is the Mystery of Dark Matter?
29:07 The Problem of Dark Energy
36:38 Models and Simulations
46:17 Modifying the Standard Model to Explain Dark Matter
58:20 The Crisis in Dark Matter
01:12:22 Alternative Explanations of Dark Matter
01:19:51 Fine-Tuning and the Multiverse
01:25:24 Black Holes

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.