Before NASA’s Dawn spacecraft found white weirdness on Ceres, it had a close encounter with the second largest asteroid: Vesta. “I have announced this star as a comet, but since […]
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Stars are born, live and die, but their light tells a remarkable story that changes over time. “Aristotle taught that stars are made of a different matter than the four […]
Planets, Stars, Galaxies, Groups and Clusters are all real. But Superclusters? They’re nothing more than optical illusions. “It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.” –Virginia Woolf […]
Why is it that in the face of a total lack of evidence for their effectiveness, so many people feel so much affection for quacks?
American stuff is the stuff of American history, as recorded in still life painting.
If there is a quantum theory of gravity, is String Theory the only game in town? “I just think too many nice things have happened in string theory for it to […]
According to relativity, there’s no universal frame of reference. But the Big Bang gave us one anyway. “The slow philosophy is not about doing everything in tortoise mode. It’s less […]
At some point, a star’s core runs out of fuel. Then what? “Man loves company — even if it is only that of a small burning candle.”–Georg C. Lichtenberg You normally think […]
A new Barnes Foundation show highlights the connections between ancient artisanal ironwork and modern art.
Before you tout the next exoplanet as “the most Earth-like ever,” ask whether that’s true, and whether that’s even a good thing. “You can spend too much time wondering which […]
It’s not just leaps and breakthroughs, but a way of thinking and a way of life. Are you in? “When I say, ‘I love you,’ it’s not because I want […]
Our Milky Way is only the second-largest galaxy in our local group. Take an interactive dive into the biggest! “He who would search for pearls must dive below.” –John Dryden […]
If you avoid the common errors of reasoning that lead large majorities of subjects to do the irrational thing on repeated experiments, you may justly gloat a little.
Be a Patron for Starts With A Bang and bring the Universe to everyone. “The universe is big, its vast and complicated, and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, impossible things […]
How providing people with evidence about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines can backfire.
The Spitzer Space Telescope has imaged our entire galactic plane in the infrared, and it’s a 180,000 pixel spectacular. “Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a […]
Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Deny Evolution If adults want to deny evolution, sure. That’s fine. Whatever. But those adults better not make their kids follow in […]
There are three things an idea must do to become a full-fledged scientific theory. How does the Multiverse stack up? “It’s hard to build models of inflation that don’t lead […]
Is everything astonishingly simple, though? Or is this a grandiose claim that falls flat when confronted with the evidence? “My main interest is the problem of the singularity. If we […]
Sure, they wiped out the dinosaurs, but do they really pose a risk to humans? “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind […]
Were it not for the vitamins added to our food, the famously unhealthy American diet would be more difficult to sustain — perhaps forcing us to eat healthier, fresher foods.
Remember the “Pillars of Creation,” the star-forming nursery in the heart of the Eagle Nebula? You’ve never seen it like this. “The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly […]
The story of our neck of the woods, on the most cosmic of all scales. “We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened […]
We’ve known for a very long time that our body language influences others. What we’re only now beginning to understand is how our body language alters the way we ourselves perceive the world.
From cloudy nights to clear, and even during the day, this beautiful bedding brings the beauty of the Universe to you! “The probability of success is difficult to estimate; but […]
Bill Nye: We May Discover Life on Europa Bill Nye (The Science Guy!) describes the possibility of discovering life on Europa, arguing that we might make such a discovery in […]
Wouldn’t it be more fair if being elected to a federal office required a majority rather than plurality of votes? Perhaps it’s time to replace our current voting system with a ranked ballot.
If you ever saw a spiral galaxy where one side looked darker than another, prepare yourself: now we know why! “With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, […]