Cosmology is the study of the entire Universe as a physical system. The

past century has witnessed a revolution in cosmological thought that has

revealed the vastness of space and the depths of cosmic time, a revolution

that is still playing out in the present day. The lecture will review the

Earth's place in the Universe, the age of the Universe as reckoned by the time

since the Big Bang, and the origin of the elements. We will return to

many of these topics later in the course, but this presents the big

picture. Recorded live on 2009 Oct 2 in Room 1005 Smith Laboratory on

the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.