“The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man,” said David Hilbert, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th century. A subject extensively studied by philosophers, mathematicians, and more recently, physicists and cosmologists, infinity still stands as an enigma of the intellectual world.

Deep in the oceans, marine biologist Marah Hardt counts coral, sea urchin, and fish and looks for patterns to understand what makes reefs sick or healthy. Create a coral reef …

Powerful new genetic tools allow scientists to alter the DNA of any organism—with tests on human embryos already underway. Even more ambitious, synthetic biologists on the verge of creating the genetic material for a living organism from scratch are setting their long-term sites on fashioning a fully synthetic human genome.

Astronomer Jill Tarter leads the charge to search for intelligent life on other planets by listening to clues from over 40 radio telescopes. Episode filmed live at the 2010 World …

Brian Greene and Michael Levi discuss revolutionary observations that may upend our cosmological understanding. This program is part of the Big Ideas series, supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

On September 14th, 2015, a ripple in the fabric of space, created by the violent collision of two distant black holes over a billion years ago, washed across the Earth. As it did, two laser-based detectors momentarily twitched, confirming a century-old prediction by Albert Einstein and marking the opening of a new era in astronomy.