January 23, 2013
“Hell must be isothermal; for otherwise the resident engineers and physical chemists (of which there must be some) could set up a heat engine to run a refrigerator to cool off a portion of their surroundings to any desired temperature.” -Henry Albert Ben
One of the most amazing ideas to come out of…
January 21, 2013
"Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it." -Vaclav Havel
But the spiral is more than a metaphor or a mathematical shape, it's also the most common feature observed in the galaxies out there in the Universe. There are 27 spiral…
January 20, 2013
"Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I don't always have all the answers, but every weekend I strive to bring you something interesting -- in some form or other…
January 18, 2013
"The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us—there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, or falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries." -Carl Sagan…
January 16, 2013
“Aristotle taught that stars are made of a different matter than the four earthly elements— a quintessence— that also happens to be what the human psyche is made of. Which is why man’s spirit corresponds to the stars. Perhaps that’s not a very scientific view, but I do like the idea that there’s a…
January 14, 2013
"The ruins were just a reminder that what had been was no longer. That everything we are will be gone someday. That I will be forgotten." -Megan Miranda
Some four-and-a-half billion years ago, a ultra-massive cloud of cold gas and dust collapsed, giving rise to thousands of stars of all different…
January 12, 2013
"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." -Thomas Merton
Whatever your creative outlets are -- music, painting, photography, drawing, or even writing, to name a few -- I hope you get to enjoy them frequently. There's nothing like engaging your imagination and…
January 11, 2013
"Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it." - Samuel Johnson
I have a six-sided die. I'm going to roll it ten times, and record each roll. And when I'm done, I'm going to have an incredibly rare, bet-you-can't-reproduce-it result…
January 9, 2013
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." -Albert Einstein
It may be hard to believe, seeing as how it's been our leading theory of gravity for nearly a century now, but Einstein's General Relativity is possibly the most frequently challenged scientific idea of…
January 7, 2013
"These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after." -Natalie Babbitt
The dog days may come at the tail end of summer, but it's the winter months that brings us the best views of the Dog Star, Sirius, the brightest star in all…
January 6, 2013
"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." -Alice Walker
This weekend -- perhaps inspired by the growing friendship between our new dog and our old one -- I've got a surprising find…
January 5, 2013
"Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories." -Ray Bradbury
It wasn't all that long ago -- back when I was a boy -- that the only planets we knew of were the ones in our own Solar System.…
January 2, 2013
"Everyone carries a piece of the puzzle. Nobody comes into your life by mere coincidence. Trust your instincts. Do the unexpected. Find the others." -Timothy Leary
Here we are, on planet Earth, the product of generations of civilization-building, maybe four-billion years of evolution on our world,…
December 31, 2012
"I'd rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are;
because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star.
I'd rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far;
for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are." -Milton Berle
Welcome to Messier Monday, where we pick one of the 110…
December 30, 2012
"When you're a little kid you're a bit of everything; scientist, philosopher, artist. Sometimes it seems like growing up is giving these things up one at a time." -Kevin Arnold, The Wonder Years
Like many who grew up around the same time I did, The Wonder Years was one of my favorite shows, putting…
December 28, 2012
"People hear the happy story, but the truth is they could all disappear in the blink of an eye. The threats just keep coming." -Todd Steiner
It's taken generations of scientists, examining the night sky for millennia, to comprehend the full size and scope of what's out there in the Universe.
Image…
December 27, 2012
"Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy." -Henri Frederic Amiel
Tonight is a special night, although not for the reasons you may think. Yes, it's just a few days…
December 26, 2012
"We have been forced to admit for the first time in history not only the possibility of the fact of the growth and decay of the elements of matter. With radium and with uranium we do not see anything but the decay. And yet, somewhere, somehow, it is almost certain that these elements must be…
December 24, 2012
"This holiday season is about remembering that the greatest gift was not laid under a tree, but in a filthy manger." -Unknown
But it isn't the manger you're thinking of that I want to share with you this Messier Monday. Although Charles Messier's catalogue of 110 deep sky objects -- designed to…
December 23, 2012
"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring -- it was peace." -Milan Kundera
It's the holiday season, and for most of us, that means spending time…
December 20, 2012
"I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again." -Eric Roth, screenwriter
Forget the prognosticators, the fortune-tellers and the…
December 19, 2012
"Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
In the great cosmic ocean, there's only one planet that we know -- for certain -- has the right conditions and history to result in intelligent life: our own.
Image…
December 17, 2012
“Men... have had the vanity to pretend that the world creation was made for them, whilst in reality the whole creation does not suspect their existence.” -Camille Flammarion
Welcome to the latest -- and most controversial -- Messier Monday, where each week, I'll take a look at one of the 110 deep-…
December 16, 2012
"The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination. It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it." -Richard Feynman
What did you think about, wonder about, and dream about the first time you saw the…
December 14, 2012
"And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make." -Paul McCartney
Every once in a while, I throw the chance out there (on facebook, twitter, or google+) to ask me whatever questions you want. Yesterday, for some insane reason, I invited people across all three platforms to ask me…
December 12, 2012
"I have this one little saying, when things get too heavy just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man." -Jimi Hendrix
Hendrix, as I told you once before, was almost right. We know of helium, conventionally, as the lighter-than-air gas that we fill balloons, blimps and zeppelins with in order…
December 10, 2012
"My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all." -John Lennon
Welcome to the latest edition of Messier Monday, where each week we take an in-depth look at…
December 9, 2012
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man." -Mark Twain
While it's hard to imagine for me now that I have one, there are plenty of people out there who have never known the rewards and joys that come with…
December 7, 2012
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe." -Carl Sagan
The Universe is a lot like an extremely intricate cake. We view it today as a snapshot in time, now that it's complete.
Image credit: Blogger user Hilly of http://makesbakesfakes.blogspot.com/.
We can…
December 6, 2012
"Forget it. I didn't have that thing inside me where I wanted to smash against somebody and watch them break. I was too sensitive for that and disliked being that sensitive." -Josh Brolin
How do you figure out what something is made of? You take it apart -- cracking it open if necessary -- and look…
