PhD TV: Dark Matters

Through hand drawn illustrations, this video creatively explains the basics on what we know about dark matter. Contents of this video are based on what the author learned during a conversation with physicists Daniel Whiteson and Jonathan Feng about Dark Matter and how CERN's collider is helping answer the question "What is dark matter?". Subjects covered include a basic definition of dark matter, the 4 major ways things interact with dark matter (gravity, electro-magnetism, weak force & strong force), why we cannot see dark matter, ways we know dark matter is there (indirect and direct evidence), the clashing world views of particle physicists and astronomers and why they are now working together to answer questions about dark matter, the role of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in answering questions on dark matter, and why this period in our history will be defined as "the period that redefined our understanding of our universe." About the Author: Jorge Cham is currently the writer and artist of "Piled Higher and Deeper", a comic strip about life in academia. He was a Research Associate at Caltech from 2003-2005 and obtained a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, specializing in Robotics.