"The Big Bang".

Jo Silk, holds one of Oxford's oldest chairs: the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy, founded in 1619. He left a Professorship at the University of California at Berkley to take up this post in 1999 . His research interests are in the field of cosmology, and include galaxy formation. With his research group, he pioneered predictions into the properties of the seeds for the large-scale structure of the universe. He has authored several books including "The Big Bang" & "A short history of the Universe".

Prof Silk will give us the inside view of cosmology: how scientists reconstruct the evolution of the universe, from its moment of origin - the Big Bang - to the distant future. Using plain language, he will describe the implications of major discoveries such as fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation and investigates the "big questions" such as, "How did galaxies form?" and "What is dark matter actually made up of?".

• The Left Hand of Creation, with John Barrow.
• Cosmic Enigmas/A>.