March 17, 2013
"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life." -Terry Pratchett
Whether it comes from without or within, there are few things in this life that captivate our attention better than a brilliant, hot and colorful display. This weekend…
March 15, 2013
"If you're a reporter, the easiest thing in the world is to get a story. The hardest thing is to verify. The old sins were about getting something wrong, that was a cardinal sin. The new sin is to be boring." -David Halberstam
It was only a few months ago that both collaborations at the Large…
March 13, 2013
"As a boy I believed I could make myself invisible. I'm not sure that I ever could, but I certainly had the ability to pass unnoticed." -Terence Stamp
When we look up at the night sky from a dark location here on Earth, somewhere around 6,000 stars greet you on a clear night.
Image credit: Tamas…
March 11, 2013
"When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time." -Haile Gebrselassie
Welcome to a very special Messier Monday, which just happens to be the twenty-first consecutive week we've taken a look at one of the 110 fixed, deep-sky objects…
March 10, 2013
"When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images." -Niels Bohr
Although I may write to you exclusively in English, I am fully aware that around half of my readership comes from outside the United…
March 8, 2013
“You wait for a gem in an endless sea of blah.” -Lawrence Grossman
On the one hand, we have General Relativity, our theory of space, time, and gravity.
Image credit: Wikimedia commons user Johnstone; Earth from NASA's Galileo mission.
It describes the Universe on both large and small scales…
March 6, 2013
"The atoms come into my brain, dance a dance, and then go out - there are always new atoms, but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
Here you are, a human being, a grand Universe of atoms that have organized themselves into simple monomers,…
March 4, 2013
"Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will forever bubble up, if forever you dig." -Marcus Aurelius
Welcome back to yet another Messier Monday! Each week, we're taking a look at one of the 110 fixed, deep-sky objects -- not to be confused with comets -- that made up Messier's…
March 3, 2013
"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit." -John Steinbeck
One of the great joys I've gotten to experience from my life…
March 1, 2013
"The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size." -Oliver Wendell Holmes
When General Relativity supplanted Newton's work as our theory of how gravity works in the Universe, it didn't just change how we view how masses attract, it gave us a new…
February 27, 2013
"Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night." -Edna St. Vincent Millay
I'm sure you've thought about it before: what would happen if you dropped something into a bottomless pit?
Image credit: original…
February 25, 2013
"Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change." -Alfred Lord Tennyson
Welcome back, for another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we've been taking a look at one of the 110 Deep-Sky Objects that make up the Messier catalogue, a mix of clusters, nebulae…
February 24, 2013
"When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all." -E.O. Wilson
Sure, there are entire worlds within our world that we never even give a second thought to. There's an entire subterranean Universe to explore, and you might get the feeling to do it if you listen to Mecca…
February 22, 2013
"When I say, 'I love you,' it's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you…
February 20, 2013
"We've learned from experience that the truth will come out. Other experimenters will repeat your experiment and find out whether you were wrong or right. Nature's phenomena will agree or they'll disagree with your theory. And, although you may gain some temporary fame and excitement, you will not…
February 18, 2013
"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if the simplest things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive." -Eleanora Duse
Welcome to another Messier Monday, where each week we take a look at one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier…
February 17, 2013
"There are some things we do much better than computers, but since most of chess is tactically based they do many things better than humans. And this imbalance remains. I no longer have any issues. It’s a bit like asking an astronomer, does he mind that a telescope does all the work?" -Vishy Anand…
February 15, 2013
“Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects.” -Roger Zelazny
It's always the ones you least expect that get you the worst, it seems. I went to bed last night excited that Asteroid 2012 DA14, a 200,000 ton asteroid, was going to pass within just 28,000 km (or 17,…
February 13, 2013
"It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it." -Carl Sagan
I would argue the exact opposite, in fact: the beauty of a sunset, in all of its varieties and variations, is only enhanced the more you know about it.
Image credit: Dan Schroeder, via Picasa.
The next time…
February 11, 2013
"Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life." -Marcel Proust
Welcome to another Messier Monday, where each week we take an in-depth look at one of the 110 deep sky objects that make up the Messier Catalogue! Messier was not the first person to try and make an accurate, large catalog of deep…
February 10, 2013
"To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice and, while it is true that the suicide braves death, he does it not for some noble object but to escape some ill." -Aristotle
"I think suicide is sort of like cancer was 50 years ago. People don't want to talk about it, they don't want to know about…
February 8, 2013
"Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again." -Antoine de Saint-Exupery
When you look out into the Universe, what is it that you typically think of? Do you think of reliable, fixed stars…
February 6, 2013
"According to the special theory of relativity nothing can travel faster than light, so that if light cannot escape, nothing else can either. The result would be a black hole: a region of space-time from which it is not possible to escape to infinity." -Stephen Hawking
You may have encountered…
February 4, 2013
"The thing's hollow—it goes on forever—and—oh my God—it's full of stars!" -Dave Bowman, 2001: A Space Odyssey
Back in October, we began a new, weekly series here called Messier Monday. Each Monday, we've taken a look at one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier Catalogue, nebulous…
February 2, 2013
"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please." -Mark Twain
I am unimpressed with speculations that have no basis in fact, but if you can show how your claims are factually grounded and arrived at, they're certainly worth a listen to. And if your facts, logic and extrapolations are…
February 1, 2013
“It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. It’s a crazy world out there. Be curious.” -Stephen Hawking
One of the most existential questions humanity has ever asked is the…
January 30, 2013
"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus." -Alexander Graham Bell
Imagine a beautiful, clear day. The Sun is shining, the skies are clear, and you couldn't ask for a nicer day.
Image credit: © 2012 Free HD wallpapers.
All of a…
January 28, 2013
"A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird?" -The Immortal Poet Bromley
To your naked eye, the night sky appears littered with thousands of individual points of light: the stars and planets so…
January 27, 2013
"In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it." -John Archibald Wheeler
Sometimes, things get difficult. Sometimes, there are challenges you have to face that you never even expected, much less were prepared for. And sometimes, it seems like there's no point in even holding on to hope…
January 25, 2013
“I asked the Zebra,
are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with some sad days?
Or are you sad with some…
