Have you ever looked at the sky at night and wondered about the mysteries of the universe? When most of us are just looking at those bright stars in awe, our guest today would be searching for tiny, minuscule signals that would help unlock the mysteries of the so-called Cosmic Dawn, when the universe went from dark to bright.

Eloy de Lera Acedo is an Associate Professor of Radio Cosmology and the head of the Radio Astronomy and Cosmology research group. His background in engineering and thirst of learning about the big science questions have led him to the Cavendish where he is involved in multiple international projects for new radio telescopes exploring a very, very infant universe.

So, with Eloy, we talk about the universe of course and how it went from darkness to radiant, but also about childhood curiosity, choosing between technical and theoretical knowledge, and about convincing people.     

Useful links

• Explore the REACH and SKA projects that Eloy presents in the episode.
• To learn more about his research work on the early epochs of the Universe, visit Eloy’s research group website.
• Curious about the history of radio astronomy in Cambridge? Read this article.
• To learn more about the Cavendish Laboratory, or if you are interested injoining us or studying with us, go to the Cavendish website

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Episode credits

Hosts: Shelly Liu and Vanessa Bismuth

Recording and Editing: Chris Brock