The question of why the world exists has not only puzzled some of history’s greatest minds but has also, at one point or another, occurred to just about every human being. And yet the more we learn, the more we understand how little we actually know: The Big Bang, for instance, turns out to have been silent, and the very notions of “something” and “nothing” require a scientific quest all their own.

But in this short animated primer from my friends at TED Ed and TEDxCERN, CERN scientist Tom Whyntie explains what we do know about how the universe was born:

Veer from the scientific into the philosophical with John Updike on the universe and why there is something rather than nothing, then veer back with a mind-bending debate on the nature of “nothing”, moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson.