Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Big Bang Theory is nearly perfect, except for one glaring problem - where is all the Lithium? According to the theory predictions there should be over three times as much Lithium in the Universe than we’ve found with our observations. So is this a case of we’ve been looking in the wrong place for all this Lithium and we just haven’t found it yet, or is there something wrong with the predictions that the Big Bang Theory makes for what happened in the first 3 minutes of the Universe’s life?
Watch the full video here: youtube.com/watch?v=5fZas1BFu1I
👩🏽💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about black holes, cosmology, dark matter, the early universe, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the biggest unsolved mysteries in astrophysics. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
drbecky.uk.com
The Big Bang Theory is nearly perfect, except for one glaring problem - where is all the Lithium? According to the theory predictions there should be over three times as much Lithium in the Universe than we’ve found with our observations. So is this a case of we’ve been looking in the wrong place for all this Lithium and we just haven’t found it yet, or is there something wrong with the predictions that the Big Bang Theory makes for what happened in the first 3 minutes of the Universe’s life?
Watch the full video here: youtube.com/watch?v=5fZas1BFu1I
👩🏽💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about black holes, cosmology, dark matter, the early universe, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the biggest unsolved mysteries in astrophysics. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
drbecky.uk.com
