The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it.
Our mission: to answer, scientifically, the biggest questions of all.
- What is our Universe made of?
- How did it become the way it is today?
- Where did everything come from?
- What is the ultimate fate of the cosmos?
For countless generations, these were questions without resolutions. Now, for the first time in history, we have scientific answers. Starts With A Bang, written by Dr. Ethan Siegel, brings these stories — of what we know and how we know it — directly to you.
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Featured
Why power generated through nuclear fusion will be the future, but not the present, solution to humanity’s energy needs.
It’s a strange idea to consider: that a tiny building block of matter, the atomic nucleus, holds the greatest potential for energy release.
And yet, it’s true; while electron transitions in atoms or molecules typically release energy on the order of ~1 electron-Volt, nuclear transitions between different configurations release energies a million times as great, on the order of ~1 Mega-electron-Volt.
Popular
From before the Big Bang to the present day, the Universe goes through many eras. Dark energy heralds the final one.
A wild, compelling idea without a direct, practical test, the Multiverse is highly controversial. But its supporting pillars sure are stable.
The surface and atmosphere is colored by ferric oxides. Beneath a very thin layer, mere millimeters deep in places, it’s not red anymore.
The first supernova ever discovered through its X-rays has an enormously powerful engine at its core. It’s unlike anything ever seen.
Just 13.8 billion years after the hot Big Bang, we can see 46.1 billion light-years away in all directions. Doesn’t that violate…something?
All Stories
It’s a scientific truth of the Universe, one that many people — children especially — have trouble coming to terms with. But it doesn’t have to be a tragedy. “Through that last dark cloud is […]
It’s easier than you might think, and we’ve been doing it for over a century. “The doctors realized in retrospect that even though most of these dead had also suffered from […]
Do changes in a gravitational field propagate instantaneously, at the speed of light, or at a different speed altogether? “The only problem with the speed of light, is it gets […]
How the last open cluster ever discovered by Messier himself still holds some amazing secrets and wonder more than 200 years after its discovery. “The journey is difficult, immense. We […]
More than 400 years after Galileo’s first telescopic observations, we’re more certain than ever that the Earth is moving through space. How do we know? “Nature is relentless and unchangeable, and […]
The best cinematic live-action adaptation of one of the silliest, most addictive mobile games I’ve ever seen! “My name is Robert and I can’t stop thinking about ninjas. These guys are […]
How an iconic athlete, actor and role model took the world by storm in a way you’ve probably never seen before! “I’m going to fight if you touch me or hurt […]
It’s known as the Mpemba effect, and it’s been observed as far back as Aristotle. But hot water really can sometimes freeze faster than cold, and the science of why […]
How one of the most interesting molecules on Earth behaves in the zero-gravity, zero-pressure environment of outer space. “Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as […]
It’s the most fantastic idea ever bandied about: that there are an infinite number of Universes identical to our own out there, and that everything that could have possibly happened […]
How our best physical understanding of the early stages of the Universe — that set up the hot Big Bang — inevitably leads us to conclude that there’s a lot more than what’s merely […]
How the Universe made the elements and atoms that make up you and me, and everything else on Earth. “Things are the way they are because they were the way they […]
Where the first atoms in the Universe — the progenitors of all the normal matter that makes up everything we know — came from. “I see a lot of new faces. But, you know the […]
A beautiful spiral just outside the Big Dipper holds many secrets that can teach us about our own Milky Way! “If I were a flower.. I would be a sunflower.To always […]
The internet is really, really great… for cats. In space. “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”-Albert Schweitzer We spend all week together wondering […]
How the mis-application of the Anthropic Principle has led factions of scientists away from the search for a natural, physical explanation of our Universe, and why that’s bad for everyone. […]
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 […]
How a new year, a new platform, and the same core cosmic principles are coming together to bring you the greatest stories the Universe tells us about itself. “Beauty is everywhere […]
What the entire natural history of everything would look like compressed down into a single calendar year. “[D]on’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live […]