The past, present, and future of the universe.

 Astronomy, called the first science of humanity, laid the foundations of civilization as it offered early humans a way to navigate and a framework to understand weather. Humans have been observing the Universe for tens of thousands of years, but astronomy developed into a standard mathematical science only in the past few thousand years. During those years, we have come to understand that planets revolve around the Sun, the Universe is comprised of trillions of galaxies, and the Universe is expanding with accelerating speed.

 Great astronomers have contributed to those discoveries, the likes of which include Ptolemy, Copernicus, Galileo, Johannes Kepler, Newton, Hubble, Einstein, Carl Sagan, and Stephen Hawking. Another name that should be included in that list is one of the 2011 Nobel Prize Winners of Physics: Brian Schmidt. Professor Schmidt discovered the Universe's accelerating expansion, and by doing so, he gave us the tools to not only more clearly understand its past but also see further into its future.

 In the lecture series “Biography of the Universe” by world-renowned astrophysicist Brian Schmidt. We learn directly from one of the most influential living astronomers everything from the history of astronomy to what we know about the future of the Universe.