The YouTube channel Closer To Truth debates with our cosmologist Licia Verde about the nature and use of probability. Probability may seem as simple as rolling dice. But probability is essential for describing the physical world and fundamental for how the world works. Almost every field of science uses probability, from discovering new subatomic particles to confirming new clinical drugs. Moreover, in the microworld, probability is the essence of quantum mechanics. What then is the essence of probability?
Licia is an ICREA professor since 2007, and belongs to the Cosmology and Large Scale Structure research group at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences. Cosmology is the field of astrophysics that studies the origin, evolution and composition of the universe. Her group focuses on finding explanations for some of the still unanswered questions of cosmology, such as what dark energy is, or what originated the universe’s primordial perturbations.