The science of volcanic lighting is almost as spectacular as the phenomenon itself. When hot, molten rock pushes its way up through the Earth’s crust and exits through to the […]
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From a Universe that went no bigger than our Milky Way to the trillions of galaxies in our expanding Universe, our knowledge increased one step at a time. “Gamow was fantastic […]
More massive is bigger, less massive is smaller, right? That’s not even half the story. “Billions of years from now our sun, then a distended red giant star, will have reduced […]
Quantum interpretations are all the rage. Too bad you don’t even need one. In everyday life, there are certain rules we take for granted: cause-and-effect, for instance. Something occurs, and that […]
Though it looks promising, there are some issues to work out before it becomes widespread.
The 20th century held some incredible advances across all the science. But astrophysics’ best days are yet to come. “When we have found how the nucleus of atoms is built up […]
If you have a choice between “known astrophysical objects” and “new physics,” bet on the known. “Two recent studies by teams in the U.S. and the Netherlands have shown that the […]
The hole in the ozone is shrinking, for sure, but to assess the whole layer, you need to look at the whole Earth. Throughout the history of life on Earth, there’s […]
The neutron star-neutron star merger was initially only seen in 1 detector out of 3. Here’s how scientists didn’t let it slip away. On August 17th, 2017, a gravitational wave event […]
IFLS might be fun for the armchair enthusiast, but couldn’t you have at least consulted an expert? “You were always a good officer. Until you weren’t.”–Saru, from Star Trek: Discovery With […]
99 years ago, General Relativity was still unproven. During the 1918 eclipse, a small team of Americans almost changed that. “Astronomers are greatly disappointed when, having traveled halfway around the world […]
Is “alloparenting” the end of family as we know it?
Five independent images point to an incredible, single story, but the mystery of how it was created still remains. “The origin and evolution of life are connected in the most intimate […]
An anthropologist and a theologian walk into a room. The punchline is wise and wonderful.
Aiming for the nearest star would necessitate a whole slew of advances. Even if the mission fails, humanity wins by investing in itself. There have been some magnificent moments in NASA […]
Is life worse or better than non-existence? And if it is, who is judging? Welcome to anti-natalism, a small but lively corner of philosophy.
“Buddhist psychology and Western psychotherapy both hold out hope for a more flexible ego, one that does not pit the individual against everyone else in a futile attempt to gain total surety.”
The new Carbon Majors Report 2017 puts all the greenhouse-gas puzzle pieces together in one eye-popping report.
There’s a smallest scale and a shortest time at which physics makes any sense. What sets that limit? “There is a limit on how much information you can keep bottled up.” –Dick […]
Either possibility offers a tremendous existence, but philosophically, there’s so much more to think about. “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, […]
Is all life on Earth bound together by mathematics?
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Another week, another fine selection of comments.
The President laid out his ambition, but no money to fund it. It’s a classic Trump move, and a recipe for failure. Last week, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, […]
If even black holes won’t last forever, what will happen when the last one goes? “My discovery that black holes emit radiation raised serious problems of consistency with the rest of […]
What was going on in the world of health and strange bodily functions?
Time on your own means time to tell the difference between right and wrong.
There are no punches to pull here. If America believes in science, research, or basic truths about the Universe, we cannot cancel this mission. Last week, the White House released their […]
With huge suites of data, we can extract plenty of signals where we know to look for them. Everything else? That’s where AI comes in. At the dawn of the 20th […]
With off-the-shelf materials and a little dry ice, you can discover particles that wouldn’t exist unless relativity were real. “The experiments that we will do with the LHC [Large Hadron Collider] […]
It’s not too late to change course, but we’re headed in the wrong direction faster than ever now. “Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,For strip-mined mountain’s majesty above the asphalt […]