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Weekend Diversion: Stop-Motion Post-Its!
Posted by Ethan on April 13, 2013 
“There is an energy with stop-motion that you can’t even describe. It’s got to do with giving things life… to give life to something that doesn’t have it is cool, and even more so in three dimensions, because, at least for me, it feels even more real.” -Tim Burton Of course we always like to…
Inflation, Dark Energy, and the Physics of Spacetime
Posted by Ethan on April 12, 2013 
“Orbiting Earth in spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase beauty, not destroy it!” -Yuri Gagarin Fifty-two years ago today, the first human being left Earth, and we began our journey into outer space. But back in 1961, we didn’t really know how far outer space stretched, or…
What Matters about Dark Matter?
Posted by Ethan on April 10, 2013 
“A cosmic mystery of immense proportions, once seemingly on the verge of solution, has deepened and left astronomers and astrophysicists more baffled than ever. The crux… is that the vast majority of the mass of the universe seems to be missing.” -William J. Broad Three classic observations — the Hubble expansion of the Universe, the…
Messier Monday: A Dusty Open Cluster for Everyone, M25
Posted by Ethan on April 8, 2013 
“The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.” -Henry David Thoreau Welcome to another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each week, we take a look at the…
Weekend Diversion: A Small Step Towards Acceptance
Posted by Ethan on April 7, 2013 
“Acceptance is not love. You love a person because he or she has lovable traits, but you accept everybody just because they’re alive and human.” -Albert Ellis In my experience as a human being, I’ve seen far too often what evils can come from judging people who are different from you and the groups you…
Long for the Stars
Posted by Ethan on April 5, 2013 
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupery The Universe has been around for a long time: 13.8 billion years, to be precise. As humans, we’re…
It’ll take a lot more than AMS to find Dark Matter
Posted by Ethan on April 3, 2013 
“On what can we now place our hopes of solving the many riddles which still exist as to the origin and composition of cosmic rays?” -Victor Francis Hess We’ve come a tremendously long way in our understanding of the Universe, but there are plenty of mysteries still to be revealed. Way back in the late…
Messier Monday: Messier’s Greatest Mistake, M40
Posted by Ethan on April 1, 2013 
“It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.” -Dale Turner This April Fools’ day, even though the rest of the internet revels…
Weekend Diversion: My favorite Viral Video of all time
Posted by Ethan on March 31, 2013 
“I’m not anybody’s judge; I don’t know what motivates people to do what they do. But I have a lot of admiration for anybody who can start with absolutely nothing and make a little something out of it.” -Wilford Brimley I’ve got a lot of respect for the creativity that goes on over the internet,…
Where is Everybody? (Part II)
Posted by Ethan on March 29, 2013 
“If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens… Where Is Everybody?” -Stephen Webb It’s one of the biggest conundrums in the Universe, known as the Fermi Paradox: if the Universe is so conducive to life, and if there are so many opportunities for it within our galaxy alone, why isn’t there any evidence (outside of the…
