For perhaps 100 million years, there were no stars in the Universe. What was it like then? The earliest stages of the Universe were extraordinarily eventful in bringing us about. Cosmic […]
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It isn’t the Big Bang or stars like the Sun that gave rise to us. The story is far more… explosive. At the smallest level, the human body is made […]
A new year. A new chance to make it big in the hyper-competitive field of commentary. Will you make the cut this week and get plucked from our 2 million Facebook followers?
Our understanding of the universe has expanded tremendously in the last few decades. But there are still some mysteries out there, and the Great Attractor is one of them.
The hallmark of a good scientist is changing your mind when new evidence arises. Here’s what that looks like. Science, like many things in life, is always a work-in-progress. While a […]
The ‘big discovery’ is nothing of the kind. We need a new planet-finding mission to probe the next frontier. Last week, NASA dropped a bombshell that it’s Kepler mission — the greatest […]
How do you get so massive so fast? The answer could be a big problem for our standard picture of cosmology. Out in the extreme distances of the Universe, the […]
Did you experience totality? I did, for the first time. And it was, even as a well-prepared scientist, beyond anything I expected. “All that is nowAll that is goneAll that’s […]
In her book, Rise of the Necrofauna, Britt Wray reports on the ethics and science behind de-extinction.
Really puts the whole “don’t give up until you’re dead” thing to shame.
If you’ve ever wondered where it gets its blue color from, physics has you covered. “That’s a misconception, Lennie. The sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.” –Jandy Nelson One […]
ORBITER was in the path of totality for the solar eclipse, and on our way, we were joking about which of us might scream. Turns out, how could you not?
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The differences between what you are and what you could be are stunning. The human body consists of somewhere around 1028particles, all bound together. The typical human has a mass […]
With hundreds of billions of stars burning bright, ‘dead’ seems like a bit of an exaggeration. But every galaxy is headed for this fate, including ours. As long as a […]
It’s discovered thousands. But how many more are out there? “How vast those Orbs must be, and how inconsiderable this Earth, the Theatre upon which all our mighty Designs, all our […]
The new Moon is brighter than every star in the sky. But you’ll never see it during an eclipse. “Even though the reason for taking the photographs was science, the result […]
If everything goes right, astronomy will take a magnificent leap into the future. But here’s what needs to happen first. Back in 2000, NASA held their decadal survey, choosing what would […]
NASA just cancelled its only lunar rover in development, despite President Donald Trump’s orders to expand lunar expeditions.
The first component of a planned “space kingdom” has been launched into orbit.
A single, complete view of half the world was enough to teach us how these distant, frozen bodies work. On July 14, 2015, NASA’s New Horizons flew by Pluto. Pluto’s atmosphere, […]
BICEP2 scientist Brian Keating’s new book is honest and insightful, but just as notable for what it fails to recognize. Imagine what it’s like to be a scientist working on […]
More than 90% of the eclipses to ever happen on Earth have already occurred. Don’t miss the next one! “We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded […]
It’s a great show in total darkness. Here’s how to not ruin it for yourself. “Yes, I am well aware that nature — or what we call nature: that totality of objects […]
80% of solar radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere. This team has found a way to tap into the rest.
Asteroid strikes and supervolcano eruptions may yet have patterns to them, but the extinctions we’ve experienced appear to have occurred at random. Throughout the history of life on Earth, there have […]
The fascinating HBO documentary ‘Elvis Presley: The Searcher’ looks at Elvis’s practice of re-making black hits for his white audience. Was it cultural appropriation or just love of the material?
Humanity’s greatest-ever view of the Big Bang’s leftover glow has just released their final analysis. Here’s what we’ve learned. It’s been more than 50 years since humanity discovered a uniform bath […]
On August 21st, 2017, a total eclipse will hit 14 states. Here’s your guide to everything you need to know. “…and the Sun has perished out of heaven, and an […]
Just how equal in size are the populations of Europe and North America?
A once-impossible new technique creates fusion energy with powerful lasers and without radioactive fuel.