Joseph Silk, University of Oxford

We peer back through the mists of time and extract knowledge about the creation of the universe. One of the greatest mysteries in the cosmos is that it is mostly dark. Astronomers and particle physicists today are seeking to unravel the nature of the mysterious but pervasive dark matter which has profoundly influenced the formation of structure in the universe. Not only is there dark matter but there is also a field of dark energy, which is dramatically accelerating the expansion of the universe. I will describe our attempts to understand the nature of dark matter, among the greatest enigmas in physics.