Ethan Siegel
A theoretical astrophysicist and science writer, host of popular podcast "Starts with a Bang!"
Ethan Siegel is a Ph.D. astrophysicist and author of "Starts with a Bang!" He is a science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. He has won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for his blog, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Physics. His two books "Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive" and "Beyond the Galaxy: How humanity looked beyond our Milky Way and discovered the entire Universe" are available for purchase at Amazon. Follow him on Twitter @startswithabang.
Where liquids are impossible, science gets really interesting! “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” –Rabindranath Tagore If you brought liquid water into outer space, […]
The laws of physics are symmetric, but the Universe isn’t. Something’s gotta give. “If antimatter and matter make contact, both are destroyed instantly. Physicists call the process ‘annihilation.” –Dan Brown When […]
I’m not saying it isn’t aliens… but it’s not aliens. “Just to clarify, neither Jason or myself … are advocating that it is an alien megastructure, but we also can’t completely rule […]
How a little knowledge can bring about some huge misconceptions… and how to fix it. “Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover […]
Something not so different from these will be our ultimate fate. “A bit of mould is a pleiad of flowers; a nebula is an ant-hill of stars.” –Victor Hugo Nothing lives […]
An incredible question to consider, answered in the latest Starts With A Bang podcast! Black holes are incredibly massive objects that are so dense that, from within a given region of […]
Three simple questions; an amazing story that goes way beyond Einstein! “Each ray of light moves in the coordinate system ‘at rest’ with the definite, constant velocity V independent of […]
Could the Universe have been born completely uniform and still given rise to us? “First, you should check out my house. It’s, like, kinda lame, but way less lame than, like, […]
And what you can do to fight it. “October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every […]
That’s not how probability works. Or asteroids, for that matter. “Bringing an asteroid back to Earth? What’s that have to do with space exploration? If we were moving outward from there, […]
And, in the process, surpasses every supernova ever seen in terms of brightness. “Even with all the collected data we cannot say with 100% certainty that the ASASSN-15lh event was […]
The flash lasts seconds, the brightness dies down in months. Yet centuries later, the remnant still shines. “When we recall the past, we usually find that it is the simplest things — not […]
If you have dreams of space, here’s your guide… to more than just school! “I’m coming back in… and it’s the saddest moment of my life.” –Ed White, at the end […]
Our tiny Earth may have changed a lot, but the gradual changes of the Universe add up, too. “We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those […]
With gift ideas from as little as $11, there might be something to tickle anyone’s fancy. “It is worthy of notice that in Table VI the brighter variables have the longer […]
Magnetic reconnection this fast shouldn’t be possible, yet we see it everywhere we look. Finally, we know why. “We are inside this plasma,and plasma is inside everything. It is incandescentin the […]
Merging black holes are some of the most extreme events in the Universe. Could a modified event horizon reveal quantum gravity? “The bedrock nature of space and time and the unification […]
When black holes stop eating, galaxies fade away. “I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food.” –Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Most large galaxies are […]
They move at the speed of light, but not even light can escape. So how do gravitational waves? “I think there are a number of experiments that are thinking about […]
And defeat for new physics. Without something spectacular, there’s no reason to build a bigger collider. “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is […]
It’s not appealing to authority that’s the problem; it’s the false authorities and what comes next if you accept their nonsense. “When a scientist says something, his colleagues must ask […]
If the impossible space engine works, could dark matter reconcile the laws of physics with these bizarre experimental results? “…axions are potentially detectable through their weak coupling to electromagnetism…” –Aaron […]
The highest energy collisions go beyond any collider… and may hold a fantastic secret! This article was written by Sabine Hossenfelder. Sabine is a theoretical physicist specialized in quantum gravity. […]
Sometimes, what nature gives you is even better than what you hoped for. “Science doesn’t always go forwards. It’s a bit like doing a Rubik’s cube. You sometimes have to make […]
Sure, we move through it just like space, but it was the aftermath of Einstein that led to us truly understanding it. “It is old age, rather than death, that […]
If you’ve ever wondered just why it has piqued the interest of so many, have a look inside. “I just think too many nice things have happened in string theory for […]
Thanksgiving may already be a week behind us, but there’s always something to be thankful for. “If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful […]
Either momentum truly is conserved and this isn’t a reactionless drive… or else. “The law of the conservation of momentum is the basis of the static thrust equation, the law of […]
And what it found was a world swimming, literally, with possibilities. Just as a Chihuahua is still a dog, these ice dwarfs are still planetary bodies. The misfit becomes the […]
From a speculative story to solid science! “The new ALMA images show the disk in unprecedented detail, revealing a series of concentric dusty bright rings and dark gaps, including intriguing features […]