How one of the first tests of special relativity might lead to the greatest particle accelerator of all-time. “One feels that the past stays the way you left it, whereas […]
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And how, if we manage to harness it on Earth, it could be the most accurate probe in all of scientific history. “We… are what happens when a primordial mixture […]
Brad Templeton discusses the vast computational power that a quantum computer could have, provided that someone were to build one.
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Through a clever experiment, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have arrived at a closer understanding of the foundation of the human imagination.
The fastest way to make interstellar travel a reality might not be only science fiction for long! It is humanity’s longstanding dream to venture to the stars. We long to […]
Want more realistic sci-fi? Consult a scientist. Here’s how you get access. “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” –Isaac […]
Before the first star ever formed, the Universe was filled with light. But how? “Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light […]
We’ve only ever seen 2nd-generation stars and later. Until, just maybe, now. “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” […]
The densest, most massive objects in the Universe will live an awfully long time, but not forever. Here’s what happens to them. Image credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA illustration by Lynette Cook. […]
After the CMB, before the first stars, there was nothing to see. Or was there? “[I]f there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we […]
How the demons and angels of our greatest minds advanced science. Image credit: Luis Royo Fantasy Art, via Photobucket user mikenolan78. When most people think of Einstein, they think of […]
Whether or not you believe there’s a problem, we’re all part of the solution. “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on […]
Sure, the Universe is expanding, and that expansion is accelerating. But beyond simply calling the cause “dark energy,” what do we know about it? Image credit: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz […]
Saw “Solar System Questions” by xkcd? Here’s what science thinks it knows. “Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come together. […]
Spoiler: NO, not a chance. Now find out why. “There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil, a natural defect, which not even the best […]
In most respects, neurology’s attack on free will seems to have won the day, not the least reason being that randomness is a far cry from making free and intentioned decisions.
Live-streamed from Perimeter Institute, & exclusive real-time commentary! “Every generation of physicists solves some old puzzles and finds some new ones.” –Dr. Kendrick Smith I want you to think back […]
What makes the Sun shine? For decades, the science didn’t add up. “Every time we get slapped down, we can say, ‘Thank you, Mother Nature,’ because it means we’re about […]
Light and sound are waves that we all know. But gravity makes them, too. “Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, […]
Is there a limit to how small a length can be? Image credit: Sabine Hossenfelder. Good ideas start with a question. Great ideas start with a question that comes back […]
A person is, in large part, the sum of their habits. We go through an evolutionary process each day, in which certain behaviors in our repertoire are selected for and […]
On his blog, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll explains how if you accept quantum mechanics, it is not difficult to accept the multiple universes hypothesis.
How a fundamental but unstable particle might be our first window into particle physics beyond the Standard Model. Image credit: Muon g-2 magnet, courtesy of Fermilab. “You suddenly realize that […]
When you work, do you often use a computer? If the answer is yes, then the specific answer is: you use a classical computer. That is what your machine is […]
We claim to know the Universe’s history to incredible precision. But is this justified? “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”-Albert Einstein We’ve reached […]
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 […]
Other particles — electrons, neutrinos, photons and more — can exist on their own. But quarks never will. Here’s why. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons user Maschen under C.C.-1.0. “In physics, you don’t have to […]
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 the world’s most powerful collider found, and may yet still find. “Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way.” –Tom Freston […]
Where all the structure in the cosmos came from, and we aren’t forming new ones anymore. Image credit: Andreas Berlind, via http://astro.phy.vanderbilt.edu/~berlinaa/work_research.html. “To be loyal to myself is to allow […]