All scientific theories, at some level, are wrong. That’s why consensus is so vital. There are two important and common words that, when used scientifically, have a very different meaning than […]
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Deniers will never stop misleading others. Here’s the truth. Every so often, advocates of a fringe theory — one that doesn’t fit the evidence as well as the mainstream theory — do what they can […]
It’s not a gambit. It’s not fraud. It’s not an opinion. And it’s not biased like you think it is. Most of us, when we think about what science is, default […]
It’s how successful our current theories are. Some 500 years ago, there was one scientific phenomenon that was, without controversy, extremely well-understood: the motion of the celestial objects in the sky. […]
The definitive answer requires better, unbiased data. Despite all the advances that have occurred in human history, one extraordinary puzzle still remains right in our own backyard: we aren’t sure how […]
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 […]
If we want our conclusions to be meaningful, our data had better be robust. When it comes to the Universe, there’s a whole lot that doesn’t add up. All the matter […]
The theoretical reasons to expect it are compelling, but the technology required to detect it is unfathomable. All throughout our galaxy, millions of black holes of a variety of masses […]
If they saw us as we were before the recent industrial revolution, would there be any reason to particularly care about us? All across the Universe, trillions of galaxies can be […]
There’s no such thing as a theory that’s too beautiful to be wrong, if it doesn’t agree with experiment. The history of physics is filled with great ideas that you’ve […]
It’s the first, most naive question you might think to ask. The solution is a lot more complicated than you imagine. According to a large amount of evidence, the overwhelming majority […]
A recent study points to the possibility that just 70,000 years ago, a star passed through our Solar System. How often does this happen, and what are the consequences? We […]
There have been a lot of public advocates from the “no dark matter” camp, getting lots of popular attention. But the Universe still needs dark matter. Here’s why. If you took […]
In the aftermath of everything we’ve learned about what’s in the Universe, we can make much better estimates of how many alien civilizations are out there. In 1961, scientist Frank Drake […]
We see matter, but not antimatter, in our Universe. Could black holes be the answer? One of the greatest cosmic puzzles in our entire Universe is why there’s so much more […]
It isn’t just for merging neutron stars, anymore. Over the past three years, there’s arguably been no greater scientific discovery than the direct detection of gravitational waves. The two LIGO […]
We always assume that dark matter is particle-based, and we just need to find which particle it is. But what if it isn’t so? Everything we’ve ever detected in the Universe, […]
Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming are all on fire, and simply driving your car can be the most dangerous thing of all. “I’d rather fight 100 structure fires than a wildfire. With […]
Did they perform their analysis sub-optimally? Maybe. But gravitational waves were seen no matter what. “We hope that interested people will repeat our calculations and will make up their own minds […]
This isn’t an XZibit joke; it’s a real scientific question. And the answer may be that it’s possible after all. “People who work every day are kind of scared of things […]
If the Big Bang happened and everything is moving away from us, where’s the center? “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out […]
A live-blog event happened a week ago, but you can catch the entire thing anew here, right now! “We have never observed infinity in nature. Whenever you have infinities in […]
And when you demand ‘perfectly identical,’ just how high of a bar are you setting? “Lives are snowflakes — unique in detail, forming patterns we have seen before, but as like one another […]
All pointing toward the Standard Model plus General Relativity not being all there is. “The Universe is very, very big. It also loves a paradox. For example, it has some extremely […]
Might Armageddon come not from an asteroid or a comet, but by something completely unseen altogether? “Honestly, if you’re given the choice between Armageddon or tea, you don’t say ‘what […]
If you’re looking for a point in space, the answer is going to shock you. “The world you see, nature’s greatest and most glorious creation, and the human mind which gazes […]
The 750 GeV particle that the LHC thought it saw? A sham. And we all should have known. “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are […]
We’re looking back in time when we look across the light years, so what’s different between what we see and what’s really there? “I saw a star explode and send out […]
There’s a small rock orbiting our planet more distant than the Moon we know. Does that mean we have two Moons? “You can be the Moon and still be jealous of […]
13.8 billion years is a great number. But how sure are we of this, and how did we get there? “Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We […]