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 […]
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A little magnetism, a few impurities and liquid nitrogen make the magic happen! “I see miracles all around meStop and look, it’s all astoundingWater, fire, air and dirtFucking magnets, how do […]
If you thought “planets move about the sun in ellipses,” wait until you read this. “I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of […]
The news is full of scary stories about threats to our health; from industrial chemicals, or the newest unfamiliar disease, or from the seemingly mundane things in life that […]
Pitching 1,807 innings against the most feared hitters on the planet, including Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, and Cal Ripken Jr., is no easy feat. It takes as much mental […]
Take a moment today to appreciate exactly how lucky we are to have what we do. “It took less than an hour to make the atoms, a few hundred million years […]
We all feel bad for Pluto, but it had its demotion coming. “I have announced this star as a comet, but since it is not accompanied by any nebulosity and, further, […]
Even if the BICEP2 results turn out not to be from gravitational waves left over from inflation. “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of […]
It’s a huge surprise, and shows up in the most unlikely of places! “You cannot, in human experience, rush into the light. You have to go through the twilight into the […]
Under the tremendous pressure and at the incredible temperatures of the Earth’s deep interior, there’s a thick layer of liquid: our outer core. But why is it so? “If you ever […]
From how they’re born to how they live to the end of their life cycle, this story is common to them all. “Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies […]
Kepler-78b, which is slightly larger than Earth, is the most similar in size to the Earth of any exoplanet yet directly discovered. However, the similarities end there.
The physics of accurately knowing just how much time has passed. “While friendship itself has an air of eternity about it, seeming to transcend all natural limits, there is hardly any […]
“Every day I live in mortal fear of offending someone.” An old friend of mine tells me this over dinner. He shouldn’t have to be afraid. He’s not bigoted or […]
What does Mercury’s surface look like?
The only way out is to modify the laws of gravity, and new constraints rule those modifications out. “The discrepancy between what was expected and what has been observed has […]
How a “New Star” appearing in 1572 paved the way for us to truly begin understanding our Universe. “I conclude, therefore, that this star is not some kind of comet […]
Have you heard about the Echinacea that was actually ground-up Parthenium hysterophorus, an invasive exotic weed in Asia and Africa which doesn’t do much for a cold but causes […]
The best argument against German Unification came from French writer François Mauriac: “J’aime tellement l’Allemagne que je préfère qu’il y en ait deux”. It takes an American to propel that […]
Plus a bonus: perhaps the single most important achievement to all of humanity. “What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the Moon, […]
Given all the stars, galaxies and what we know about the laws governing reality, how many planets are there in our observable Universe? “Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as […]
This time-lapse video, recorded by the Messenger spacecraft en route to Mercury, shows what it looks like to say goodbye to planet Earth.
Saturn, Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter will all be visible in the August night skies, as will the annual Perseid meteors. A number of nebulas will also be easy to find among the constellations.
Why the kind of knowledge you get by asking the Universe questions about itself is the most valuable type of knowledge there is. “I’m also uncomfortable with dogmatic believers; to my […]
The Sun — like nearly all stars — burns bright through its nuclear reactions, sending light, heat and energy out into the Universe over a timespan of billions of years. But how? “The sun is […]
Five score and seventeen years ago, the United States was a boxy, silver-coloured dog with a chunky tail of dark gold. That bizarre image, embedded in the familiar outline of […]
If we scaled the entire Universe’s history from the Big Bang until now to be “one Universe year,” what would our future look like? “The way to love anything is to […]
There is a cheap, safe, chemopreventive agent for prostate cancer. It’s called selenium. But virtually nothing has been done to get the word out.
What everyone should know about where our matter-and-radiation-filled Universe came from. “I don’t think at this point we have any way of knowing where the laws of physics came from. We […]
While you might be less dumb than your ancestors, you are nonetheless guilty of backwards thinking all the time.