esiegel

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Ethan Siegel

Ethan was born in New York City as the son of a Jewish postal worker. He did his undergrad at Northwestern, taught public school in Houston, Texas and Los Angeles, California, before moving to Florida, where he got his PhD in theoretical astrophysics at the University of Florida. After that, he moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he taught at the University of Wisconsin, ate too much cheese, and also met his life partner, Jamie. After working in astrophysics research at the University of Arizona and starting the world-renowned science blog, Starts With A Bang, he moved from the hellish desert to rain-soaked Portland in 2008. Since then, he's been a professor at the University of Portland and Lewis & Clark College, grown a nationally renowned beard and mustache, got invited to join a circus and probably drank more beer than a healthy person should. He currently works as the head curator at Trapit, and can't wait to tell you a little bit more about the Universe.

Posts by this author

Ask Ethan #33: A Flight Without Stars (Synopsis)
“Don’t get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein You know how bad light pollution is for astronomy, and how hard we try to escape it. We search for the…
Throwback Thursday: Top 5 Signs of New Physics (Synopsis)
“Other than the laws of physics, rules have never really worked out for me.” -Craig Ferguson When you think about the Standard Model of particle physics, you very likely think about all the matter, energy, particles, antiparticles, forces and interactions of the Universe. And you might…
How the Sun *really* shines (Synopsis)
“Mr. Burns: Smithers, hand me that ice-cream scoop. Smithers: Ice-cream scoop? Mr. Burns: Damn it, Smithers! This isn’t rocket science, it’s brain surgery!”  -The Simpsons I bet you're one of those people who hears a term like "nuclear physics" and thinks that's hard stuff, way over your…
The Astro Alphabet (Synopsis)
“When I was having that alphabet soup, I never thought that it would pay off.” -Vanna White A couple of years ago, I had the idea to make a special entry showcasing 26 different astronomical phenomena, one for each letter of the alphabet. Today, that idea's been built upon and improved, and I'm…
Messier Monday: A Star-Forming Spiral, M61 (Synopsis)
“All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.” -Victor Hugo During all other full Moons, I wouldn't dare show you a galaxy for Messier Monday. But…
Weekend Diversion: The greatest album covers as seen from behind (Synopsis)
“I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them.” -Elizabeth Taylor You know how important music is to me, and for many of you it holds a similarly prominent place in your lives and in your hearts. A big part of that experience, going back to…
Comments of the Week #6: From Matter/Antimatter to Eclipses
"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong." -Voltaire It's been another great week over on the main Starts With A Bang blog, where we got to touch on a number of remarkable topics, including: Why are we made of matter? (For Ask Ethan #31…
Ask Ethan #32: Are our students doomed to an inferior education? (Synopsis)
“Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.”  -Dan Quayle It wasn't that long ago that I myself was a student, and of course over the past decade-and-a-half I've been very heavily involved in education -- both formally and informally -- at a huge variety of levels…
Throwback Thursday: The Lives and Deaths of Sun-Like Stars (Synopsis)
“Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.” -Samuel Johnson You might look up at our Sun in the sky, delighted at its brilliance and life-giving brightness, thankful for all it's brought to our world. But we're all just a little bit dismayed at the crushing…
Incredibly rare “back-to-back” maximum eclipses are coming! (Synopsis)
“And everything under the sun is in tune But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.” -Pink Floyd We normally think of eclipses as rare phenomena, something that happens only occasionally. While it's true than any particular location only experiences eclipses -- particularly solar eclipses --…
The secret of the galaxy's most famous nebula (Synopsis)
“The self-same atoms which, chaotically dispersed, made the nebula, now, jammed and temporarily caught in peculiar positions, form our brains; and the ‘evolution’ of brains, if understood, would be simply the account of how the atoms came to be so caught and jammed.” -William James Summer is coming…
Messier Monday: The farthest Messier object (for now), M58 (Synopsis)
“When we are sure that we are on the right road there is no need to plan our journey too far ahead. No need to burden ourselves with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar our progress. We cannot take more than one step at a time.” -Orison Swett Marden Every Messier Monday, we've taken a…
Weekend Diversion: Trompe-l’œil Art (Synopsis)
“The contemporaries and rivals of Zeuxis were Timanthes, Androcydes, Eupompus, and Parrhasius. This last, it is said, entered into a pictorial contest with Zeuxis, who represented some grapes, painted so naturally that the birds flew towards the spot where the picture was exhibited. Parrhasius, on…
Comments of the Week #5: Climate, Planets, Multiverse and more
"For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal." -John F. Kennedy After a great week over on the new Starts With A Bang blog, where we covered a…
Ask Ethan #31: Why are we made of matter? (Synopsis)
“You may not feel outstandingly robust, but if you are an average-sized adult you will contain within your modest frame no less than 7 × 10^18 joules of potential energy—enough to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to…
Throwback Thursday: Global Warming for Beginners (Synopsis)
“There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.” -David Attenborough If you had never heard of global warming before, how would you figure out whether it was happening, whether humans played a role, and what the magnitude of it…
The Multiverse is not the answer (Synopsis)
“Physical reality does not require that we be pleased with its mechanism; we must see the implications of a theory for what they are and not for what we would like them to be.” -Kevin Michel If you've been following along for a while -- particularly in light of the recent BICEP2 results -- you're…
Why are there (at most) eight planets in the Solar System? (Synopsis)
“I have announced this star as a comet, but since it is not accompanied by any nebulosity and, further, since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet. But I have been careful not to advance this supposition to…
Messier Monday: The Biggest One of them All, M87 (Synopsis)
“I recognize my limits, but when I look around I realise I am not living, exactly, in a world of giants.” -Giulio Andreotti There are a huge number of deep-sky objects visible from Earth, and every Monday -- with the Messier Monday series -- I've made it my goal to tell you about one of them in…
Weekend Diversion: The Amazing Life of Coral Reefs (Synopsis)
“Ten percent of the big fish still remain. There are still some blue whales. There are still some krill in Antarctica. There are a few oysters in Chesapeake Bay. Half the coral reefs are still in pretty good shape, a jeweled belt around the middle of the planet. There’s still time, but not a lot,…
Comments of the Week #4: From null results to the Multiverse
"A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." -Max Planck It’s been a great week for learning a little more about our Universe, from fundamental…
Ask Ethan #30: Long-term timekeeping (Synopsis)
“While friendship itself has an air of eternity about it, seeming to transcend all natural limits, there is hardly any emotion so utterly at the mercy of time.” -Robert Hugh Benson If you were headed out into the Universe -- spaceship and sci-fi technology and all -- it simply wouldn't make sense…
Throwback Thursday: Have we found our last fundamental particle? (Synopsis)
“The particle and the planet are subject to the same laws and what is learned of one will be known of the other.” -James Smithson Now that the Higgs has been discovered, the Standard Model is complete. But are there any other new particles? Image retrieved from Fermilab, modified by me. If…
What is the Multiverse, and why do we think it exists? (Synopsis)
“In the confusion we stay with each other, happy to be together, speaking without uttering a single word.” -Walt Whitman With the new result out from BICEP2, and even more firm evidence for cosmic inflation in place, many of you must be wondering what this means for the Multiverse. Image credit:…
Should you get your PhD? (Synopsis)
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” -Benjamin Franklin It's graduate school acceptance season, and many people out there have big decisions coming up. Some of you will have questions about where to go to graduate school, while some will have questions about whether to go…
Messier Monday: A Perfectly Calm Spiral in a Gravitational Storm, M88
“We’ll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one’s been.” -Tool A beautifully undisturbed, large spiral can be found right at the heart of the Virgo Cluster. Sure, looking at the heart of the Virgo Cluster on its own, you might totally overlook today's Messier object. Image credit:…
Comments of the Week #3: From the Beginning to Today
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." -T.S. Eliot It's been a remarkably exciting week for science, and you've had a lot to say about our new articles at the main Starts With A Bang blog.…
Weekend Diversion: An Optical Illusion For Your Ears (Synopsis)
“It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.” -Anais Nin You know the expression that you should believe half of what you see and none of what you hear, don't…
Ask Ethan #29: The Most Famous Failed Science Experiment (Synopsis)
“The conclusions, the bizarre conclusions, emerge as though with the greatest of ease: the reasoning is unbreakable. It looks as though he had reached the conclusions by pure thought, unaided, without listening to the opinions of others. To a surprisingly large extent, that is precisely what he had…
Throwback Thursday: The Cosmic Speed Limit (Synopsis)
“All our sweetest hours fly the fastest.” -Virgil The speed of light in a vacuum is the limit for massless particles, but massive ones are limited even further! Have you ever wondered about that? Image credit: ICEPP via https://www.icepp.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/history/lep-e.html (L); LEP / CERN, via http…