Starts With A Bang — January 29, 2017

The controversy over how fast the Universe is expanding

Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all

It’s been going on ever since we first discovered the expansion, and there’s no resolution in sight.

The discovery almost 100 years ago that the Universe was expanding was a revolution for science, for cosmology and for our conception of existence. Hubble discovered what Einstein’s couldn’t imagine, and after that, the race was on to learn exactly what those observations meant for our cosmic origins. After decades of controversies, we now have a better picture of our Universe than ever before, yet questions remain. What will be the ultimate answer?

Find out the possibilities, and what the limits of our knowledge tell us is possible, on this edition of the Starts With A Bang podcast!

Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all

Diagram of atomic orbitals showing various shapes and labels, including s, p, d, and f orbitals, organized in a triangular structure with coordinate axes x, y, z.

Starts With A Bang

Why the number “1/137” appears everywhere in nature

One of the fundamental constants of nature, the fine-structure constant, determines so much about our Universe. Here’s why it matters.

Starts With A Bang

The Steady-State Universe: A viable alternative to the Big Bang?

For nearly 60 years, the hot Big Bang has been accepted as the best story of our cosmic origin. Could the Steady-State theory be possible?

Starts With A Bang

Could dark matter be the same thing as dark energy?

Two parts of our Universe that seem to be unavoidable are dark matter and dark energy. Could they really be two aspects of the same thing?

Global geoid map with colorful variations representing differences in Earth's gravity field. The scale ranges from -100 (low) to 100 (high). Europe's position is central.

Starts With A Bang

Scalar fields: the secret sauce of theoretical physics

Scalars, vectors, and tensors come up all the time in physics. They’re more than mathematical structures. They help describe the Universe.

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Does the CMB really “prove” the Big Bang?

Since the mid-1960s, the CMB has been identified with the Big Bang’s leftover glow. Could any alternative explanations still work?

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