OUR BEST IDEA FOR THE “ORIGIN OF GOLD” DOESN’T ADD UP Where does gold come from in the Universe? The amount that we know how to create, astrophysically, just isn’t enough to match wha...
NEW PARTICLE AT LAST! PHYSICISTS DETECT THE FIRST “GLUEBALL” It’s not a new “fundamental” particle, but finding a glueball — a composite particle made solely out of gluons, with no ...
JWST UNCOVERS NEW SECRETS WITHIN THE HORSEHEAD NEBULA Here’s what JWST really saw, and what it means, when it peered inside the “mane” of the Horsehead Nebula. JWST uncovers new secrets...
I am having shoulder surgery today (should be routine), with a long recovery ahead. I’ll be offline, recovering, until my return on May 6th. Be good to each other! Meanwhile, enjoy new st...
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WHEN HUMAN BEINGS TRANSFORMED THE EARTH? The final part of an epic, more than 30-part series on the history of the Universe. Check out the full series with a lovely infographic...
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WHEN HUMANS FIRST AROSE ON PLANET EARTH? For 99.998% of the Universe’s history, there were no human beings. Here are the great evolutionary and historical steps that allowe...
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WHEN MAMMALS APPEARED AND THRIVED? Once life became complex and differentiated, plants, animals, and fungi began to dominate planet Earth. Here’s how mammals, after 500 mil...
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WHEN LIFE ON EARTH BECAME COMPLEX? Just four evolutionary advances took us from simple life to the complex, differentiated life that has dominated Earth for more than the last ...
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WHEN OXYGEN KILLED ALMOST ALL LIFE ON EARTH? Oxygen: giver of animal life or the cause of the greatest extinction event in Earth’s history? Why not both? What was it like...
HOW DO SYMMETRIES LEAD TO CONSERVATION LAWS? #AskEthan The profound connection between physical conserved quantities and symmetries of a physical theory go back more than a century to one unh...
PARTICLE PHYSICS FINALLY CHARTS A HEALTHY PATH FORWARD No more infighting. No more (fake) “certainty” about SUSY or WIMP dark matter. No more budget-busting projects. Particle physicists ...
HOW GROUND-BASED ASTRONOMERS OVERCOME EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE Two incredible and underappreciated technologies, the sodium laser and the deformable mirror, allow ground-based telescopes to sometim...
HOW TO MEASURE A LUNAR MONTH DURING THE SOLAR ECLIPSE Not in the path of totality during the solar eclipse? No problem; you can still use the partial eclipse you do have to measure the durati...
5 TOTAL MISTAKES TO AVOID AT THE APRIL 8, 2024 SOLAR ECLIPSE The April 8 total solar eclipse is almost here. If you want to make the most of totality, make like Admiral Ackbar and avoid these...
HAS A NEW STUDY DISPROVEN DARK MATTER AND DARK ENERGY? #AskEthan That news study that “disproved dark matter, dark energy, and claimed the Universe is twice as old as we think?” Come le...
HOW LOGIC AND REASONING CAN FAIL AS SCIENTIFIC TOOLS Using logic and reasoning to reach scientific conclusions only works when the Universe makes sense using the logic and reasoning we’re use...
FLAGSHIP NASA SPACE TELESCOPE FACES A PENNY-PINCHING DEATH In the Presidential FY2025 budget request, Biden called for decommissioning NASA’s Chandra: our flagship X-ray telescope. The reas...
WHY “INCOMPLETENESS” MATTERS IN THEORETICAL PHYSICS From Maxwell to Einstein to Feynman to Guth, fixing an incompleteness in theoretical physics has led to profound advances. Don’t give...
MARCH 25, 2024’S FULL MOON PORTENDS APRIL 8TH’S SOLAR ECLIPSE A penumbral lunar eclipse is easily the most boring species of eclipse to occur on Earth. But March 25th’s is special, as i...
HOW DID MATTER COME TO EXIST IN OUR UNIVERSE? #AskEthan Our Universe contains one extra matter particle for every 1.6 billion photons that exist. How did it get to be this way? Ask Ethan:...