universe
Tag archives for universe
What is this all about?
Posted by Ethan on June 6, 2012 
“You don’t use science to show that you’re right, you use science to become right.” -Randall of xkcd In January of 2008, I began writing this blog, Starts With A Bang, both for myself and for all of you, because we all have something in common. The same planet, the same heavens, the same laws of nature and the…
What Lies in the great Pinwheel Galaxy?
Posted by Ethan on May 26, 2012 
“This seems to be the law of progress in everything we do; it moves along a spiral rather than a perpendicular; we seem to be actually going out of the way, and yet it turns out that we were really moving upward all the time.” -Frances Willard As spring gives way to summer here in…
Astronomers make use of… molecules?
Posted by Ethan on May 14, 2008 When I think of molecules, I think of Conan O’Brien doing his skit where he plays Moleculo… the molecular man! I don’t think of astronomy, and I certainly don’t think of the leftover radiation from the big bang (known as the cosmic microwave background)! But somebody over at the European Southern Observatory put these two…
The Earth is More than 6000 Years Old!
Posted by Ethan on April 25, 2008 Even creationists have said that if you find something that’s alive now that’s over 6000 years old, it would prove to them that the Earth is at least that old. Previously, the oldest tree in the world was thought to be a Bristlecone Pine in California, known as the Methuselah tree, at 4,840 years old…
How to Destroy the Entire Universe
Posted by Ethan on April 23, 2008 Since the dawn of time man has yearned to destroy the sun. – C. M. Burns There’s no need to stop at the Sun, though. Since yesterday was Earth day, I thought it was only appropriate to spend today telling you how not only to destroy the Earth, but to effectively destroy the entire Universe.…
On String Theory from a String Theorist
Posted by Ethan on April 18, 2008 Bret Underwood, a friend of mine from my time in Madison, WI, saw my post on String Theory, and took issue with my statement that it wasn’t testable. I’m still standing behind what I said, but let’s address what Bret has to say. I don’t understand your argument above for why string theory is untestable.…
Why Explore Space/the Universe?
Posted by Ethan on April 11, 2008 Fraser Cain over at Universe Today sent out a question to the Astronomy/Astrophysics/Space communication community today. And he asks: Why should we spend our time/money/resources on exploring space when there are so many problems here on Earth? This is something that, for better or worse, I had a knee-jerk reaction to. Here’s what I wrote…
Energy Conservation and an Expanding Universe
Posted by Ethan on April 11, 2008 So, what’s the deal with this one? startswithabang.com reader Scott Stuart asks the following question: I was reading “The First Three Minutes” last night and came across an interesting section about blackbody radiation and energy density. The author states that as the universe expands, the number of photons running around (in the CMB, for example)…
…and then they came for me!
Posted by Ethan on March 28, 2008 There’s a movie coming out on Creationism, Intelligent Design, and Evolution, called Expelled, and it’s narrated/hosted by Ben Stein (right), a TV/film personality who is an overall intelligent guy (and used to have the TV show Win Ben Stein’s Money), and used to be a Nixon speechwriter. Politically, he’s quite conservative (for example, immediately following…
