Towards the Infinitely Big

Embark on a quest in search of the infinitely big, alongside the men and women of physics who will help you discover the greatest distances of the Universe known to date, as well as the scientific methods used to study them. You will learn what scientists have managed to find out about the history and structure of the Universe and its components, and how they have gathered their observations on stars, galaxies and the Universe as a whole.
Available on the Coursera platform, this French-taught class is part of the “Journeys from the Infinitely Big to the Infinitely Small” MOOC, developed by scientists from the P2IO (Physics of Two Infinities and Origins) Laboratory of Excellence, a cluster of physics laboratories located in Orsay and Saclay focused on the physics of the infinitely big and small.
- Towards the Infinitely Small
- Towards the Infinitely Big
- From One Infinity to Another
- The Two Infinities and Our World
will bring you on a journey through two living, dynamic fields of research: the infinitely big (the Universe, its components and its evolution) and the infinitely small (elementary particles and fundamental interactions).The course will present the latest discoveries (Higgs’ boson at CERN in 2012, the first signals of gravitational waves in 2015 and 2017 etc.) and the cutting-edge experiments that are driving these advancements. You will discover the men and women (researchers, engineers, and technical and administrative experts) who are further advancing these sciences, and learn about the societal applications resulting from this fundamental research.
WHO IS THIS COURSE AIMED AT?
COURSE SYLLABUS:
- Basic notions
- Fundamental components
- Studying elementary particles
- The LHC and beyond