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

When the Universe was twice as hot
“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…
Messier Monday: The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, M83
"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…
Weekend Diversion: Our years of shared songs
"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…
Why the Universe needs Dark Matter (and not MOND) in one graph
"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…
The Evolution of Starlight
“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…
Messier Monday: Messier's Oldest Open Cluster, M67
"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…
Weekend Diversion: Combatting Alzheimer's with Art
"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…
The Last Refuge of a Science-Denying Scoundrel
"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…
A thought experiment for the relativity skeptics
"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…
Messier Monday: The Dog Star's Secret Neighbor, M41
"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…
Weekend Diversion: Unlikely Friendships
"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…
How Many Planets Are In The Universe?
"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…
What we learn just by being here
"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,…
Messier Monday: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, M13
"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…
Weekend Diversion: My Love Letter to Winnie Cooper
"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…
The Universe Beyond Our Reach
"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.…
The Longest Full Moon of the Year
"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…
A relic from the primitive Universe... in our own backyard!
"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…
Messier Monday: The Beehive Cluster / Praesepe, M44
"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…
Weekend Diversion: The Best Holiday Present
"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…
The Science of the Real End of The World
"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-…
The Nearest Sun-Like Star May Be As Miraculous As Our Own!
"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…
Messier Monday: A Great Galactic Controversy, M102
“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…
Weekend Diversion: Discovering the Universe
"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…
Answering ALL Your Questions
"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…
Why the World Will Run Out of Helium
"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…
Messier Monday: A Reflection Nebula, M78
"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…
Weekend Diversion: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
"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…
Yes, we really, REALLY need Dark Matter!
"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…
So much more than an Atom Smasher
"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…