I will discuss aspects of the physics of very high energy heavy ion collisions, which form the hottest and densest matter on earth. This matter, called a Quark-Gluon Plasma previously only existed micro-seconds after the big bang. The talk will provide a look into how this matter is formed, what it is made up of, and its transport properties. The lecture will draw on ideas in Quantum Chromodynamics, string holography, statistical mechanics, plasma physics, quantum chaos, Bose-Einstein Condensates and pre-heating in inflationary cosmology. It will examine closely the spectacular success of hydrodynamics in describing the properties of the QGP.