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 fuel's all gone...
April 23, 2012
"Some painters transform the Sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the Sun." -Pablo Picasso But the Sun will not always be a bright spot. Though it has shone for billions of years already, and will continue to shine for billions of years more, it's currently doing this by…
Weekend Diversion: Happy Earth Day, No Matter Where You Are
April 22, 2012
"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity - in all this vastness - there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us." -Carl Sagan Here on our planet, this is the one day that we take out of the year to stop and…
Welcome Earth Day with the Greatest April Shower of All: The Lyrids!
April 20, 2012
"April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain." -T. S. Eliot Of course you all know the refrain, "April showers bring May flowers," but there's one April shower that brings fireballs instead: the Lyrids! Image…
The Whole Story on Dark Matter
April 19, 2012
"Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions." -Vera Rubin I want you to think about the Universe. The whole thing; about everything that physically exists, both visible and invisible, about the laws of nature that they obey, and about your place in it. It's a…
The Power of Admitting "I'm Wrong"
April 16, 2012
"Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain't so." -Mark Twain "It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong." -Richard Feynman Every day that you set forth in the…
Weekend Diversion: Where Bigfoot Dwells
April 15, 2012
"You never need think you can turn over any old falsehoods without a terrible squirming of the horrid little population that dwells under it." -Oliver Wendell Holmes As an astrophysicist, I get sent all sorts of (unsolicited) novel ideas and theories claiming to overturn everything from special…
Down the barrel of a thousand cosmic cannons!
April 13, 2012
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" -Albert Einstein Our galaxy is but one among hundreds of billions in the cosmos, nearly all of which contain supermassive black holes at the center. Ours happens to be "only" a few million times as massive as our Sun…
The Whole Universe from One Satellite's Eyes
April 11, 2012
"We were left with a picture of part of the sky with no stars or galaxies, but it still had this infrared glow with giant blobs that we think could be the glow from the very first stars." -John Mather When you look out at the night sky, you're limited by the light pollution from your surroundings,…
When supernovae get too big!
April 9, 2012
"You cannot, in human experience, rush into the light. You have to go through the twilight into the broadening day before the noon comes and the full sun is upon the landscape." -Woodrow Wilson Without a doubt, one of the most spectacular light shows of the cosmos happens when stars burn out --…
Weekend Diversion: Fill-in-the-blanks
April 8, 2012
"It's so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas." -Paul Cezanne All over the world, hundreds of millions of families are getting together this weekend for a variety of reasons. And a large number of them will have, as part of their nature, a big announcement made. Depending…
...But What If There Was More Time?
April 7, 2012
"Well you run and you run to catch up with the Sun but it's sinking, racing around to come up behind you again. The Sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death." -Pink Floyd For the last four-and-a-half billion years, the Earth has spun on its…
Why Haven't We Discovered the Higgs yet?
April 3, 2012
"...the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing." -Leon Lederman, author of The God Particle The Higgs Boson: you know the deal. It's the last undiscovered particle in our…
Weekend Diversion: Faster-Than-Light Marshmallows?
April 1, 2012
"I think a strong claim can be made that the process of scientific discovery may be regarded as a form of art. This is best seen in the theoretical aspects of Physical Science... The theory of relativity by Einstein, quite apart from any question of its validity, cannot but be regarded as a…
Billions of Stars in the Galaxy!
March 30, 2012
"A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars - billions upon billions of stars." -Carl Sagan Perhaps the most striking feature of the night sky under truly dark conditions isn't the canopy of those thousands of points of light, but rather the expanse of the Milky Way, streaking across the entire…
A Little Black Hole Goes A Long Way
March 29, 2012
"[The black hole] teaches us that space can be crumpled like a piece of paper into an infinitesimal dot, that time can be extinguished like a blown-out flame, and that the laws of physics that we regard as 'sacred,' as immutable, are anything but." -John A. Wheeler To an astronomer on any other…
Why is there something instead of nothing?
March 27, 2012
"Think binary. When matter meets antimatter, both vanish, into pure energy. But both existed; I mean, there was a condition we'll call 'existence.' Think of one and minus one. Together they add up to zero, nothing, nada, niente, right? Picture them together, then picture them separating--peeling…
Weekend Diversion: Here comes the Robot Apocalypse!
March 23, 2012
"You will be able to program a robot to follow a track on the ground and manipulate a hand. You can also write little programs that will give the robots goals." -Bill Budge Ever since the very first robots were conceived, the robot apocalypse -- or a time where the robots will become intelligent…
This is what your Universe looks like!
March 21, 2012
"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." -Edgar Allen Poe When you look out into the darkness of a moonless, unpolluted night sky, you'll of course notice that it's full of stars, planets, and the…
A Martian Supernova for Skywatchers Everywhere!
March 20, 2012
"When I had satisfied myself that no star of that kind had ever shone before, I was led into such perplexity by the unbelievability of the thing that I began to doubt the faith of my own eyes." -Tycho Brahe When stars reach the end of their lives, there are many possible fates that they can have.…
Neutrinos and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
March 19, 2012
"To use Newton's words, our efforts up till this moment have but turned over a pebble or shell here and there on the beach, with only a forlorn hope that under one of them was the gem we were seeking. Now we have the sieve, the minds, the hands, the time, and, particularly, the dedication to find…
Weekend Diversion: The Amazing Dance of Dark Matters
March 17, 2012
"Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite; it is a passionate exercise. We've got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word. That's the silence under the chatter of our time…
The Fat Lady Sings for OPERA
March 16, 2012
"The saying 'It's not over 'til the fat lady sings' is erroneous, because women who are fat are never listened to." -Margaret Cho Last year, the OPERA collaboration made worldwide headlines when they announced the results of a remarkable experiment. Image credit: OPERA / CERN. From over 730…
Pi Day Fun Facts!
March 14, 2012
"Now go on, boy, and pay attention. Because if you do, someday, you may achieve something that we Simpsons have dreamed about for generations: you may outsmart someone!" -Homer Simpson Today, March 14th, is known tongue-in-cheek as Pi Day here in the United States, as 3.14 (we write the month first…
The Most Difficult Course... For A Teacher
March 13, 2012
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." -Albert Einstein Last month, an interesting conversation happened on the topic of the most difficult course that a student takes in their studies. Image credit: Steve Perrin / University of Michigan MSIS.…
Weekend Diversion: Preparing for May 20th's Annular Eclipse!
March 11, 2012
"They call it a great wonder That the Sun would not though the sky was cloudless Shine warm upon the men." -Sighvald, Icelandic poet A couple of times a year, during the New Moon, the Sun, Moon, and Earth all line up in the same plane. As seen from Earth, the Sun's disc appears blocked, either in…
The Most Astounding Fact About The Universe
March 9, 2012
"Is no one inspired by our present picture of the Universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers, you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age." -Richard Feynman Back in 2008, Time Magazine interviewed Neil de Grasse…
Are You Being Honest With Yourself?
March 7, 2012
"Be careful. People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things...well, new things aren't what they expect. They like to know that, say, a dog will bite a man. That is what dogs do. They don't want to know that man bites a…
A Cosmic Smashup and a Dark Matter Mystery?
March 5, 2012
"I soon became convinced... that all the theorizing would be empty brain exercise and therefore a waste of time unless one first ascertained what the population of the Universe really consists of." -Fritz Zwicky You very likely know that there are four fundamental forces in the Universe: gravity,…
Weekend Diversion: MidSouthCon 30 Is Coming!
March 3, 2012
"The question I always get is, 'Why didn't you throw Dr. Smith off the Jupiter?' I get that all the time." -Mark Goddard Here at Starts With A Bang, we focus on the promises, possibilities and physical groundings of our Universe, while very rarely venturing into fiction and fantasy. But, very often…
Remember How Tiny We All Are
February 29, 2012
"The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine." -James Irwin With everything that goes on in this world, from our…