Physical Science
Return of The Physics Bus
Posted by Chad Orzel on May 6, 2013 
My parents have a DVD of the Bacon Brothers singing “The Wheels on the Bus” over an animated scene, which The Pip loves and insists on watching over, and over, and over, and over… As the parent sitting through this on Sunday morning, I got a little punchy over on Twitter, and invented some quantum-physics-themed…
Why Science Is Anything But A Crime
Posted by Ethan on May 3, 2013 
“Talent hits the target no one else can hit; genius hits the target no one else can see.” -Arthur Schopenhauer You’ve probably heard the story, by now, of Kiera Wilmot, the 16-year-old girl who performed a mildly dangerous chemistry experiment on school grounds, mixing together household cleaner and aluminum inside a sealed container. You can…
Erwin Schrödinger and the Quantum Revolution by John Gribbin
Posted by Chad Orzel on May 2, 2013 
Erwin Schrödinger is one of the more colorful figures in physics history. He’s best known for Emmy’s favorite thought experiment, of course, which attempts to demonstrate the absurdity of quantum physics through locking a cat in a box. This overshadows the Schrödinger Equation, the central equation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, which won him a Nobel…
Putting Einstein to the Test
Posted by Ethan on May 2, 2013 
“The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you have sprung from the soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength. They are radical. Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will…
Preschool Science
Posted by Chad Orzel on May 1, 2013 
SteelyKid takes a bunch of enrichment classes at her day care, none of which are explicitly science. I was, however, thrilled to discover that they were doing actual science in her computer class though. The “Featured Image” at the top of this post (sorry, RSS readers, you’ll need to click through) is a cell-phone picture…
Putting the 400 ppm CO2 thing in perspective
Posted by Greg Laden on April 30, 2013 Before the release of vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere mainly through the burning of fossil fuels, the atmospheric concentration of this gas was about 300 ppm or a bit more. Soon, that number will be 400 ppm. How soon? Let’s see … it is now Tuesday at about 7pm. Maybe mid morning tomorrow?…
Messier Monday: A Real-Life Pi-in-the-Sky Cluster, M38
Posted by Ethan on April 29, 2013 
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” -W. Shakespeare Welcome to just another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we’re taking a detailed look at a different one of the 110 deep-sky objects that compose the Messier Catalogue, each one a different semi-permanent wonder of…
Bangladesh and Sea Level Rise
Posted by Greg Laden on April 29, 2013 
You’ve all heard about the horrible tragedy in Bangladesh, still unfolding. Not to distract from that event, or diminish its importance, I thought it would be interesting to have a look at that low lying country in relation to long term sea level rise caused by climate change. I am making no claim here about…
Weekend Diversion: I’m Writing for NASA Now!
Posted by Ethan on April 28, 2013 
“For I dipped into the Future, far as human eye could see; saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.” -Alfred, Lord Tennyson This weekend, the Sun is shining here in Portland, as we’ve gotten our first annual spell of warm, sunny days recently. It’s got me thinking of the…
The Cosmic Speed Limit
Posted by Ethan on April 26, 2013 
“All our sweetest hours fly the fastest.” -Virgil If you’ve been around the block once or twice, you know that the speed of light in a vacuum — 299,792,458 meters-per-second — is the absolute maximum speed that any form of energy in the Universe can travel at. In shorthand, this speed is known as c to…
