If we came to be just a few billion years earlier, we’d never know. Image credit: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT) & Giovanni Anselmi (Coelum Astronomia), Hawaiian Starlight. “After all the ‘Universe’ […]
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No other idea explains even two of these. Image credit: NASA / CXC / ESO WFI / Magellan composite. Any recent article about the remaining mysteries of the Universe will […]
The nature of our Universe defies our intuition. That just might be the greatest thing of all. “I asked the Zebra,are you black with white stripes?Or white with black stripes?And […]
Doesn’t this look like the cosmic equivalent of a field of irises? Perhaps that’s why this cloud of gas and dust is called the Iris Nebula. NASA released this image […]
A giant squid haunts the depths of Earth’s sky. NASA explains: A mysterious, squid-like apparition, this nebula is very faint, but also very large in planet Earth’s sky. In the […]
What if the Black Plague had killed off almost all Europeans? Then this is what Africa might have looked like.
It took Messier himself more than a decade to observe it, but the reward is a glimpse into the ancient Universe! Image credit: Daniel Verschatse, via http://www.astrosurf.com/antilhue/m55.htm. “The only thing […]
It’s one of the most unforgettable opening acts of any 20th century film. In the midst of a dense jungle, a mercenary pulls a gun on the man paying the […]
The center of elliptical galaxy Centaurus A is obscured by dramatic thick lanes of dust. What caused their unusual appearance? NASA explains: These dust lanes are so thick they almost […]
This photo was snapped by Marco Belluci in Kalabougu, Mali. His description: Kalabougou is a village located across the Niger river from Ségou (Mali). The village is known for its […]
German researchers have found that archerfish, a unique type of fish that shoots jets of water at its above-water prey, possess human-like adaptive capabilities.
Encounters in the fourth dimension. We all have an intuitive sense of what a dimension is. There are only three perpendicular directions in which we might move, which we might […]
What happened when things were hot enough to spontaneously create matter and antimatter? “It followed from the special theory of relativity that mass and energy are both but different manifestations […]
What’s powering the jets of material blasting into this galaxy’s disk? NASA explains: The spiral arms of bright, active galaxy M106 sprawl through this remarkable multiwavelength portrait, composed of image […]
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 […]
Have you ever experienced a moment when you’ve teetered between telling the truth and telling a lie? According to a new study, you have your dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to thank for that.
The best 2015 calendar makes a great gift. And you can win one for free just for reading this blog! “We are not the same persons this year as last; […]
Facing several controversies involving scientific complexity, the European government created a Chief Science Adviser to provide independent objective expertise and input into policy making. when some groups didn’t like what the science said about genetically modified food, they objected to the whole idea of independent science advice to government. The EU government has caved to public pressure and abandoned the Chief Science Adviser function. We should ALL be scared by a move away from evidence-based policy making, toward a solely values-based approach.
How do we know how old the most distant objects we see actually are? “Sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back […]
The Foldscope is an ingenious creation from Stanford’s PrakashLab. It’s a microscope that can be assembled by folding a single printed sheet of paper, a process similar to making origami, and one that costs less than a dollar.
It’s 1962 in an America that has lost World War II…
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Look up after sunset for the most reliable meteor shower of the year: the Perseids, and learn where they come from! Image credit: Michael Menefee (Fort Photo on flickr), via […]
NASA today released this image of Gliese 832c, the closest potentially habitable exoplanet. From NASA: This planet is only 16 light years away — could it harbor life? Recently discovered […]
The way the Universe has unfolded, to bring us about in this moment, has been remarkable. Be thankful for it all. “We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are […]
How Worlds Thought in the 1960s to be Circling Barnard’s Star Turned out to be Illusions. Image via: http://www.wingmakers.co.nz/universe/extrasolar/Barnards.html. In this golden age of exoplanet discovery, it is hard to […]
Near the constellation Coma Berenices, some 63 million light-years away, is NGC 4651, a spiral galaxy about the size of our Milky Way. Extending 100 thousand light-years past its galactic […]
How to destroy an Alderaan-sized planet. “What’s that star?It’s the Death Star.What does it do?It does Death. It does Death, buddy. Get out of my way!” –Eddie Izzard It’s one […]
How to figure out your location on Earth with only the most primitive tools. “And you may find yourself in another part of the world.And you may find yourself behind […]
The observer changes everything, but what does that mean? “You can observe a lot by just watching.” –Yogi Berra In our everyday lives, things happen the way they happen, and whether […]