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And what might we learn as we collect new, never-before-seen data? If you took one of history’s top scientists from 100 years ago and dropped them into today’s world, what […]
Scientific surprises are often how science advances. But more often than not, they’re just bad science. When you’re a scientist, getting an unexpected result can be a double-edged sword. The best […]
BICEP2 scientist Brian Keating’s new book is honest and insightful, but just as notable for what it fails to recognize. Imagine what it’s like to be a scientist working on […]
And just what did come before — way before — the Big Bang? “We are part of the universe that has developed a remarkable ability: We can hold an image of the world in our […]
It’s a wonderful potential technology for going interstellar. But in your lifetime? Don’t hold your breath. “Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We […]
I scored an exclusive interview with Dave Reitze, the executive director of LIGO. Take a trip inside his Universe. “When I was in high school, I was certain that being […]
Why the argument that “this idea is absurd” is no argument at all. “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and […]
Is everything astonishingly simple, though? Or is this a grandiose claim that falls flat when confronted with the evidence? “My main interest is the problem of the singularity. If we […]
No matter how great your expertise, new discoveries await for the curious. “There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and […]
There are three things an idea must do to become a full-fledged scientific theory. How does the Multiverse stack up? “It’s hard to build models of inflation that don’t lead […]
A “speculative” theory no more; it’s had four of them confirmed. “Scientific ideas should be simple, explanatory, predictive. The inflationary multiverse as currently understood appears to have none of those […]
Is there another version of you somewhere out there in a parallel Universe? “Go then, there are other worlds than these.” –Stephen King, The Dark Tower One of the most […]
If there’s something before the Big Bang, then what does that mean for the beginning of our Universe? “You can try to lie to yourself. You can try to tell […]
What every middle-to-high schooler should know. Image credit: Bayside STEM academy, via Stanford at https://ed.stanford.edu/news/new-design-thinking-curriculum-targets-middle-school-students. “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time […]
We don’t know the nature of either dark matter or dark energy: 95% of our Universe. Does that mean the Big Bang is in doubt? Image credit: wiseGEEK, © 2003 — 2014 […]
Piss off George Lucas and shoot your eye out with a real-life light saber! “General Kenobi. Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you […]
General relativity sure does make some counterintuitive predictions. “They say the universe is expanding. That should help with the traffic.”–Steven Wright Each week on Ask Ethan, I take a dive […]
No snark, no sarcasm, no judgement, just the genuine, honest answers to 22 creationist messages. “In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; […]
When the citadels of knowledge for knowledge’s sake collapse, the marketers rush in to fill the void. We’re in greater need now than ever of epistemology – a careful, systematic examination of what we know and how we know it.
What’s the Big Idea? The words “learning” and “education” are unsexy in print – probably because for most people they unconsciously conjure up feelings of Dickensian dread and boredom. This […]
The idea that "true happiness" is of a uniformly high emotional pitch, and our tendency to expect it from external things ironically ends up causing us a great deal of suffering.
Ainissa Ramirez, hailing from the birthplace of American football, Yale University, walks us through the major physics concepts at work in the sport.
Humor fosters community and builds character, two virtues that educational reformers neglect.
In order to be marketable today and in an increasingly competitive economy, each one of us has to get our creative juices flowing and constantly come up with fresh ideas. […]
This spring in the sophomore-level course I teach on “Communication and Society,” we spent several weeks examining the many ways that individuals and groups are using the internet to alter […]