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How We Could Solve the Dark Matter Mystery | Chanda Prescod-Weinstein | TED

The universe that we know, with its luminous stars and orbiting planets, is largely made up of elements we can’t actually see — like dark energy and dark matter — and therefore don’t fully understand. Theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein takes us inside the search for this cosmos-shaping invisible matter and explains how, with the help…

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The universe that we know, with its luminous stars and orbiting planets, is largely made up of elements we can’t actually see — like dark energy and dark matter — and therefore don’t fully understand. Theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein takes us inside the search for this cosmos-shaping invisible matter and explains how, with the help of a new generation of telescopes, we could be closer to demystifying it than ever before. “The universe is more queer and fantastical than it looks to the naked eye,” she says. (If you want to hear more from Prescod-Weinstein, check out her episode on “The TED Interview” podcast.)

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86 Comments

86 Comments

  1. Doug Ewald

    July 13, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    I enjoyed this right up to the point where she just had to mention her race and sexual orientation.

    WTF does that have to do with her subject matter?

    I don’t understand why so many people find it necessary to announce these personal things that should be private.

    These things are a big deal because people keep making such a big deal out of them.

    No one asked & very few care.

    Thoroughly inappropriate.

    • ElegantCourtier

      July 13, 2022 at 9:25 pm

      Because the field is white and male-oriented. Discrimination in all its forms suppresses ideas and, in effect, slows progress. She is making an appeal to the scientific community to embrace people from diverse backgrounds. Someone non-conforming potentially holds the clue to unlocking the biggest discoveries.

  2. John Karavitis

    July 13, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    Yet another Ted Talk fluff piece that gives us nothing to discuss. Mind-numbingly bland and senseless. Except that now we have proof that Ted Talks seek to silence critical discourse of their “topics”. So sad.

  3. CMDR After Hours

    July 13, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    There is no “outer space”. The jesuit catholic heliocentric model is a sad joke and has been throughly exposed. You are NOT on a water ball in “outer space”.

  4. RTV Gaming

    July 13, 2022 at 6:33 pm

    I always hated math, not because I was bad in it, but because whenever I got an answer wrong I knew it is true. There is no maybe in math or “what if”, once you get to the right answer there’s just YES or NO. And that’s why it’s important that brilliant people like Mrs. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein brings up the question “what if” to push forward the science and research to find the YES answer. Thank you for this TED talk.

    • CMDR After Hours

      July 13, 2022 at 9:13 pm

      Math is just a language. Modern day “science” is not science at all but instead psuedo science quite literally by definition. “Imagine if you will” and “what if” is usually followed by nonsense more often than not. A magician’s go to.

  5. Extraterrestrial Intelligence

    July 13, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    you call aliens made up of dark matter demons!

  6. Eli.zaveta

    July 13, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    I was listening to NPR a few days ago discussing this very topic.

  7. Jointy DotNet

    July 13, 2022 at 7:00 pm

    Enjoyed it until it went woke. Better content on the subject out there

    • Tomislav Suhic

      July 13, 2022 at 10:46 pm

      Same .like c’mon ,even in those events? All over the place with same s..t.

  8. Siafnd bin

    July 13, 2022 at 7:05 pm

    WTF does gay have to do with all that ….?

  9. Willful Mystic

    July 13, 2022 at 7:13 pm

    I’m with you on the math and the politics.

  10. Davar Shah Ovaisi

    July 13, 2022 at 7:29 pm

    You don’t necessarily believe in what is true, You would rather believe in what you feel comfortable with.

  11. Wiktoria Chmielewska

    July 13, 2022 at 7:33 pm

    is that the lady who blocked all the swifties on twitter

  12. Thankful Lally

    July 13, 2022 at 7:40 pm

    So beautiful. Well done. 💕💕

  13. Doom Food

    July 13, 2022 at 7:49 pm

    Dark matter isn’t real. It’s a measurement that the scientific community just jumps on board with no proof. It’s as archaic as the belief that the sun rotates around the earth.

  14. NeonVisual

    July 13, 2022 at 8:04 pm

    Well the obvious clue is that we only see evidence of dark matter in galaxies with supermassive black holes. Gravity falloff is doing something strange when a singularity is involved, so I would start by looking at the math when a 3D object like a star is compacted down into a 2D rotating singularity, and how it would effect gravitational curves when all that gravity is focused into two dimensions like, I don’t know, the galactic disc surrounding it.

  15. PlazmaRemiXD

    July 13, 2022 at 8:53 pm

    I think the work that goes into all this is fascinating and I have tons of respect for the people that dedicate their lives to it… but there was a lot of unnecessary and random stuff thrown in on top of it seeming like a flex of how much work they’ve done with not much explanation of what is actually going on.

  16. Japeto9

    July 13, 2022 at 8:56 pm

    Amazing topic by a scientist who forgoes basic biological science. A shame, her clear bias on that point and unrelated political motives makes you wonder about the validity of her expertise.

    • chris van Meijl

      July 13, 2022 at 10:41 pm

      Your dismissal of her expertise in physics because she happens to acknowledge a psychologically recognized gender spectrum does nothing more than illustrate your own bias and your inability to see past it. Gender and a person’s location on the gender spectrum is a scientifically debated topic that is every bit as valid as the dark matter theories on which she is clearly highly educated.

  17. D L

    July 13, 2022 at 9:27 pm

    Why do you not talk about dark energy which is far more then dark matter?

  18. Bryan Haproff

    July 13, 2022 at 10:01 pm

    I already solved the Problem 10 yrs. ago.

  19. Oleg Baiburin

    July 13, 2022 at 10:14 pm

    Good!

  20. ilaphroaig

    July 13, 2022 at 11:28 pm

    Very interesting, but I can’t listen to your voice, so annoying. Too bad.

  21. fro334bro

    July 14, 2022 at 12:07 am

    13min21sec: She’s obviously a very smart girl. Her bedroom activities is a private matter that has no bearing in a public *science* presentation. I just don’t understand and can’t support this mess. Please don’t try to force it on others.

  22. JustFromAlabama

    July 14, 2022 at 12:21 am

    Wow! Great job 👏
    Would love to one day solve this problem

  23. Bliksem Donder

    July 14, 2022 at 12:28 am

    Dark Matter is the modern Phlogiston…

  24. Bruce Barton

    July 14, 2022 at 1:09 am

    WE DON’T EVEN KNOW .000001% OF GOD’S KNOWLEDGE !
    PROBABLY, MUCH LESS!

  25. AW C

    July 14, 2022 at 1:17 am

    So what is the wavelength of the force particle of gravity? Like photons certain wavelength probably interact with objects of the right size. A radio wave passes through some material. Higher the frequency the more likely the interaction. Dark matter.

  26. Shadow Heart

    July 14, 2022 at 10:58 am

    My question with Dark Matter is; is it one thing or more? For example, say we discover what Dark Matter is, would it be ‘one thing’ and so we suddenly know what ‘all’ Dark Matter is? Or is there different kinds and types of Dark Matter, or different things making Dark Matter (like how we have different elements. So discovering one element doesn’t mean we know all the elements)?

  27. Sound production and advice.

    July 14, 2022 at 11:27 am

    Can we stick to science, please? The wokeness is nauseating.

  28. Alex Goslar

    July 14, 2022 at 11:36 am

    With all of our wisdom combined, we will never understand the Universe because it adheres to a system of correlations alient to us.

  29. sadakotube

    July 14, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    tough crowd but she managed to get a laugh out of them. Very impressive Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

    • UgandaBeKiddingME

      July 14, 2022 at 4:51 pm

      affirmative action baby

  30. Satyaveer Singh

    July 14, 2022 at 12:09 pm

    Tim water

  31. David LaMont

    July 14, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    Third dimension is artificial

  32. Novruz Gurbanov

    July 14, 2022 at 3:04 pm

    did she just turned this into woke propaganda? lmao

  33. Jerry Yager

    July 14, 2022 at 4:16 pm

    You solve the dark matter problem by admitting there’s a huge problem in the math and going back to the drawing board, but no, they double down on it.

  34. Coco7795

    July 14, 2022 at 4:35 pm

    Dark Matter is racist?

  35. Robert Marks

    July 14, 2022 at 5:12 pm

    What an amazing time we live in!! but let down with race baiting woke dribble that has to try be heard over amazing attachment. To the amazing people and the absolute heroic efforts that has got us here and the minds coming to fill there shoes, we salute you

  36. naughtyat25

    July 14, 2022 at 5:15 pm

    Why rename JWT? HT has her name and recognization in the history!

  37. Marcus Greene

    July 14, 2022 at 5:20 pm

    Harriet Tubman? This woman isn’t black stop appropriating my peoples. Weinstein? really bro

  38. m bachety

    July 14, 2022 at 6:02 pm

    You’d think a scientist wouldn’t speak with a vocal frrrrriiiiiy.

  39. Covert Rabbit

    July 14, 2022 at 6:02 pm

    Dark matter is racist! we nee to re name it ” Historically oppressed matter” Makes as much sense as renaming the telescope.

  40. DICEROS AMBIENT SPECTRUM CENTER OF MUSIC CHANNEL

    July 14, 2022 at 6:12 pm

    🤢🤢🤮🤮

  41. Kongolox

    July 14, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    you were doing so good until 13:20

    ya had to go there… :/

  42. Milosh01

    July 14, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    She seems nervous

  43. Bee

    July 14, 2022 at 8:01 pm

    Listening to this something came to me….. We say we come into the world but I just realized we don’t. We come out of it.
    I, you, everything is the universe. A universe expanding in all shapes and forms, experiencing itself

  44. Bee

    July 14, 2022 at 8:12 pm

    Could dark energy be the universe’s memory? Where do memories go when the physical form changes

  45. Gillian Hart

    July 14, 2022 at 8:58 pm

    Drivel.

  46. aravinth vt

    July 14, 2022 at 9:16 pm

    science to politics, “give me a break”. it is becoming too much nowadays.

    • Missy Aman

      July 16, 2022 at 2:02 pm

      Please, name a time in history where science was NEVER political.

    • aravinth vt

      July 16, 2022 at 6:42 pm

      @Missy Aman yes, from all time from history, Please keep politics away from science and now as well. Now it’s even crazier than ever.

  47. AmericaIsWorthIt

    July 15, 2022 at 12:28 am

    Hariet Tubman was not an astronomer.

  48. Epic Unicat

    July 15, 2022 at 12:31 am

    Yeah her political bias ruined the whole video. If she can’t keep politics out of the science of space and dark matter then her opinion doesn’t matter.

    • whyyyyyyy

      July 15, 2022 at 1:59 am

      It was abit overwhelming… but still an enjoyable talk.

    • Marcus Aurelius

      July 16, 2022 at 12:49 pm

      Exactly

    • Missy Aman

      July 16, 2022 at 1:59 pm

      Science is political tho.. thinking you can keep politics out of science is very silly.

  49. Mehdi Baghbadran

    July 15, 2022 at 12:40 am

    No matter if you are an invisible, the matter is that you are alive

  50. Mehdi Baghbadran

    July 15, 2022 at 12:51 am

    The spaces and universes are there to giving us clear understanding of ourselves and who we are, then we’ll find out which particular we are going to be, is our choice, I myself choice is to be an electron and also photons, to expanding the lights into the humanity!

  51. Ta Chang

    July 15, 2022 at 2:09 am

    Brilliant and Inspiring.

  52. Navesblue

    July 15, 2022 at 2:42 am

    “We must rename this telescope after someone less allegedly homophobic!”
    I’m sorry. But I scantly imagine how pro-gay Harriet Tubman was in her lifetime either.

    • Marcus Aurelius

      July 16, 2022 at 12:52 pm

      Exactly! Most black Americans pre 21st century were not down with the LGBT stuff and even less so in Africa.

  53. Brian White

    July 15, 2022 at 3:05 am

    This woman is a woke supremacist.

    • Whatsapp+⓵⓼⓵⓻⓷⓪⓽⓸⓻⓹⓸

      July 17, 2022 at 2:19 pm

      Tell Max Thomas Thompson to help 🆘 on trading fees investment for something new ⤴️⬆️❤️

  54. Emmette Davidson

    July 15, 2022 at 9:43 am

    Seriously?! Since when has the dogmatic consensus of any self-serving orthodoxy been right, ever? Rather, everything is rather simple, really.

    • Whatsapp+⓵⓼⓵⓻⓷⓪⓽⓸⓻⓹⓸

      July 17, 2022 at 2:19 pm

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  55. Sibylle Leon

    July 15, 2022 at 10:30 am

    Wonderful! I lol-ed for real when she brought up the “visual” of what dark matter looks like to her xD

  56. Alwyn Nito

    July 15, 2022 at 11:12 am

    it’d be ironic if humanity was or has wiped out life that could have helped us see/detect

  57. The English Academy

    July 15, 2022 at 12:37 pm

    Nice

  58. Fred Williams

    July 15, 2022 at 12:45 pm

    Ted has not been the same in many years, what happened.

  59. Best Fit Square Channel

    July 15, 2022 at 2:19 pm

    🫶🏼 🥂

  60. Giuseppe Worthington

    July 15, 2022 at 7:23 pm

    Pretty disgusting way to end a decent speech. There has been no evidence to support the claims made by Chanda that James Webb had anything to do with the persecution of LGBT people. As a scientist, Chanda should be smarter than to reach conclusions without conclusive evidence. To interject her half-formed politics into the end of a scientific discussion is unprofessional.

  61. consummateVssss

    July 15, 2022 at 9:10 pm

    In Chanda’s own words, James Webb ‘acquiesced’ to anti-LGBT policies at NASA in the 50s. He wasn’t supporting them nor was he against them either. They probably also had a policy for “commies” back in those days, which also sounds ridiculous by todays standards.

    Her suggestion of naming a telescope after Harriet Tubman because she used the north star as a compass while operating the underground railroad so that makes her an “astronomer” is ridiculous.

    Tubman was a great person, but I doubt she had any better views of LGBT people living back in the 1800s than JW did in 1950., if anything Tubman’s views on LGBT would be even more abhorrent to today’s views.

  62. Gaddafi Giraffi

    July 16, 2022 at 7:06 am

    How is the universe more queer than previously thought? What’s the math and science behind that claim?

  63. Invox

    July 16, 2022 at 11:44 am

    1:31 did she really say “invisible NON-BINARY person”???
    Why didn’t she just say “invisible PERSON”!
    … this s* is getting out of hand.

  64. Invox

    July 16, 2022 at 11:55 am

    13:31 And there it is!… I was wondering why this talk was takimg so long and giving us so little. All this cuz “I want latest scinetific tech to be named after wamen!”. And everyone applauded or else be labeled “wamen hater”.
    Geez Ted, get better speakers.

  65. Marcus Aurelius

    July 16, 2022 at 12:46 pm

    A woke simpleton. If Harriet Tubman was an astronomer, I’m a biologist because I know what a woman is.

  66. Florian Gaeremynck

    July 16, 2022 at 12:55 pm

    Thank you for bringing some light to the controversial namesake of the JWST

  67. Flying fig

    July 17, 2022 at 3:00 am

    Great Talk!! got me more and more exciting, her passion is very contagious!! looking forward to hearing more about dark matter.

  68. Lake Placid

    July 17, 2022 at 3:12 am

    What happened to these channel they became woke…

    • Whatsapp+⓵⓼⓵⓻⓷⓪⓽⓸⓻⓹⓸

      July 17, 2022 at 2:00 pm

      Tell Max Thomas Thompson to help 🆘 on trading fees investment for something new ⤴️⬆️….

  69. Kervis Boston

    July 18, 2022 at 10:07 am

    Mix all the particles of the standard model of elementary particles together and bind them together with various hydrogen molecules. As the universe is filled with a variety of hydrogen molecules. Then you’ll have at least one version/structure of dark matter. This will require a lot of experimentation to get the variety correct.

  70. daniel bertges

    July 18, 2022 at 12:05 pm

    Sorry but I turned off at “invisible non-binary person”

  71. aditsu

    July 18, 2022 at 2:41 pm

    Wow, either youtube or this channel is censoring comments… I didn’t even write anything offensive. Shame on whoever did that.

  72. brugna456

    July 18, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    Perhaps instead of trying to do the same thing over and over we need to go back in time and see where we took a left turn? Dark matter is an illusion an illusion that started when the idea of an ether was abandoned . The Michelson–Morley experiment never disproved the ether theory it showed that the ether was not static as previously thought. However shortly after Einstein brought relativity into play and everybody abandoned the ether for this sexy new model, ironically a new medium called “space-time”. Students are not thought this instead they are brainwashed with how Einstein was the smartest human being who has ever lived and how his theories are perfect in every way.

    Ether theory can be refined and some have shown that it could explain the galaxy rotation speed problem which scientist today attribute hopelessly to dark matter. But science has become a religion today and anyone daring to go against the grain is burned like a witch as in medieval times. This hopeless clinging to idols and their 100 year old theories needs to stop.

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