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.
Carve these frighteningly costumed versions of Einstein, Curie and other famous physicists thanks to Fermilab! “It’s said that All Hallows’ Eve is one of the nights when the veil between […]
Even the cosmic home where our Solar System resides will someday meet it’s demise. But how? “Unless one says goodbye to what one loves, and unless one travels to completely new […]
Throwback Thursday: How Dark Matter’s #1 Competitor Died The only way out is to modify the laws of gravity, and our best observations rule those modifications out. “The discrepancy between […]
Traveling to the future is possible, but the “back” part runs into trouble. Mr. Strickland: “I noticed your band is on the roster for the dance auditions after school today. […]
Star Wars’ Hoth has nothing on the real-life version! “My Lord, the fleet has moved out of lightspeed. Com Scan has detected an energy field protecting an area of the […]
Fish, plants, rocks, and some ornaments? Amateur hour is over; take a look at the results from the International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest! “Life is life’s greatest gift. Guard the […]
Four billion years ago, the Universe was a different place. What would we have seen? “In such moments, offering up his heart at the hour when the flowers of night […]
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 […]
If all the worlds formed together, they have the ingredients for life, too. Maybe it isn’t just Earth who got lucky. “If I had to describe myself to an alien […]
Exclusion and a lack of diversity are the breeding grounds for harassment. “There is no kind of harassment that a man may not inflict on a woman with impunity in […]
The evidence is there, and sometimes a set of pictures can show you better than words could ever tell. “If I want water, I’ll have to make it from scratch. […]
It’s all too common to hear about the violent crimes of NFL players. But that’s not the full story. “I can look in their eyes and see it. That’s the […]
The way you experience time changes when you near the speed of light. So what happens when you actually reach it? “Everyone has his dream; I would like to live […]
The most powerful accelerator in the world found the Higgs, but might not find anything else. What should come next? “It is no good to try to stop knowledge from […]
Have you been enjoying learning about the Universe? There’s always so much to cover that we’re never going to run out of stories to tell, new discoveries to report on, […]
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 […]
The death throes of a Sun-like star announce its funeral to the whole galaxy. “The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”–Rabindranath Tagore Image credit: Adam Block/Mount […]
NASA just posted all 8,400 photos from all 12 Apollo missions to Flickr. Here are the best in full, original resolution. “Suddenly, from behind the rim of the Moon, in […]
Our Sun gets its energy from fusion in its core. But can any light be made from the surface? “Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn’t people feel as free […]
It’s been more than three years since we’ve found the Higgs boson. So how does it give particles mass? “This is evidently a discovery of a new particle. If anybody […]
If you saw the lunar eclipse from a city, here’s what you missed. “The reports of the eclipse parties not only described the scientific observations in great detail, but also […]
NASA’s Dawn Mission has finally photographed the full world at full resolution. Come see it! “Bringing an asteroid back to Earth? What’s that have to do with space exploration? If […]
At 104 years old, Grace Brett’s “yarn-bombing” of numerous towns in Scotland is a sight the whole world should see. “Some people become vandals because they want to make the […]
There were two periods of exponential expansion in the Universe: one today and one long ago. Are they related? “What is wild cannot be bought or sold, borrowed or copied. […]
Why the argument that “this idea is absurd” is no argument at all. “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and […]
But especially for anyone who listened to your “Celebration of Creation” speech. “In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is […]
And is blue even a rare color for planets? “Whenever I gaze up at the moon, I feel like I’m on a time machine. I am back to that precious […]
From the Hubble Space Telescope, of course. Come view them all at once! “From our home on the Earth, we look out into the distances are strive to imagine the […]
If Americans get a “D” in science, what should the A-students do? “It is worthwhile, too, to warn the teacher that undue severity in correcting faults is liable at times […]
We know that Einstein’s general relativity is superior to Newton’s gravity, but where did Newton go wrong? “To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or […]