The best explanations of cosmic inflation are in cartoon form

Maggie Koerth 9:35 am Mon Mar 24, 2014

Big physics news is often difficult to explain, which, sadly, means it doesn't get explained very well. If you know that, last week, scientists made a major discovery about what happened in the fractions of a second after the Big Bang — but don't understand much more than that — there are two easy-to-digest explainers that will help you wrap your head around the discovery in a bit more depth.

Ph.D. Comics creator Jorge Cham interviewed one of the Ph.D. students working on the team that made the discovery and turned that interview into a cartoon. It'll give you a nice overview of the history behind this new discovery and how it fits into other stuff you've heard about before, like Edwin Hubble and Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. Then, head over to Minute Physics and watch a short film that focuses in on the discovery, itself. You'll come away with a much better understanding of why physicists are so excited.

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