How do we study processes that take billions of years to unfold? Here, we venture back into the cosmos with Dr. Eric Anderson, a postdoctoral researcher at the American Museum of Natural History, to discuss how numerical simulations allow us to "watch" the birth and growth of galaxies. We break down the balance between gravity and thermal pressure, the mysterious "quenching" of star formation during the Epoch of Reionization, and why dwarf galaxies are the perfect laboratories for studying the early universe.

We go behind the scenes of the research process, discussing the sheer computational power required to run "Inferno" simulations, the transition from CPUs to GPUs, and the reality of the million-hour supercomputing run.

Inside the Episode

Blueprint of a Galaxy: