Abstract : The space of formal arcs of an algebraic variety carries part of the information encoded in a resolution of singularities. This series of lectures addresses this fact from two perspectives. In the first two lectures, we focus on the topology of the space of arcs, proving Kolchin's irreducibility theorem and discussing the Nash problem on families of arcs through the singularities of the variety; recent results on this problem are proved in the second lecture. The last two lectures are devoted to some applications of arc spaces toward a conjecture on minimal log discrepancies known as inversion of adjunction. Minimal log discrepancies are invariants of singularities appearing in the minimal model program, a quick overview of which is given in the third lecture.