February 29, 2012
"When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap." -Cynthia Heimel
Once every four years, the elusive entity that is today -- February 29th -- comes along. The…
February 28, 2012
"One mustn't look at the abyss, because there is at the bottom an inexpressible charm which attracts us." -Gustave Flaubert
The deepest depths of space, out beyond our atmosphere, our Solar System, and even our galaxy, hold the richness of the great Universe beyond. Stretching for billions of light…
February 25, 2012
"Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?" -Bernice Fitz-Gibbon
Yes, I have a Ph.D. in Astrophysics. Yes, I've spent years as a professional scientist, an award-winning physics…
February 23, 2012
"Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink." -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Despite the discovery of…
February 22, 2012
"I have difficulty to believe it, because nothing in Italy arrives ahead of time."
-Sergio Bertolucci, research director at CERN, on faster-than-light neutrinos
You know the story. Last year, the OPERA experiment at CERN announced, to the shock and surprise of practically everyone, that they had…
February 19, 2012
"If you end up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it." -Frank Zappa
I'm no one to tell anyone else how to live their lives, save to say that, at the end of…
February 17, 2012
"Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world." -Carl Sagan
Nothing lasts forever in this Universe, not even the seemingly timeless stars in the sky. At any moment, any one of the brilliant, twinkling points of light from across the galaxy could run…
February 15, 2012
"What's that star?
It's the Death Star.
What does it do?
It does Death. It does Death, buddy. Get out of my way!" -Eddie Izzard
Like it was for many people, the original, very first Star Wars movie was one of my favorites as a child. And while there was a lot to be in awe of, the idea of jetting…
February 13, 2012
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet." -William Shakespeare
Up in the night sky, just a few degrees away from Orion, one of the most identifiable constellations in the winter sky, lies a cluster of newly formed stars.
Image credit: Stellarium. As…
February 9, 2012
"The phenomena of nature, especially those that fall under the inspection of the astronomer, are to be viewed, not only with the usual attention to facts as they occur, but with the eye of reason and experience." -William Herschel
We live in the most plentiful of scientific times, where the full…
February 8, 2012
"It took less than an hour to make the atoms, a few hundred million years to make the stars and planets, but five billion years to make man!" -George Gamow
Let's pretend that, for all of our history on Earth, we had never once bothered to look up with any instruments beyond what our own eyes could…
February 7, 2012
"If people decide they're going to deny the facts of history and the facts of science and technology, there's not much you can do with them. For most of them, I just feel sorry that we failed in their education." -Harrison Schmitt
Last year, I asked a simple question with no easy answer: Whom Do…
February 5, 2012
"There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man."
-Winston Churchill
There are a number of weird, bizarre, and highly entertaining things out there, and one of the greatest values of the internet is how it allows its users to -- with enough searching and a bit…
February 3, 2012
"More days to come / New places to go
I've got to leave / It's time for a show
Here I am / Rock you like a hurricane!" -The Scorpions
It isn't just Earth, of course, where these great cyclonic storms occur, whipping across the planet and wreaking havoc as they rage above the surface. Most famous,…
February 1, 2012
"The Earth's atmosphere is an imperfect window on the universe... atmospheric turbulence blurs the images of celestial objects, even when they are viewed through the most powerful ground-based telescopes." -John Bahcall
There's no doubt that the Hubble Space Telescope has given us some of the most…
January 30, 2012
"In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms." -Stephen Jay Gould
Those of you who follow me on either…
January 28, 2012
"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving individuals. We all must work for our own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity." -Marie Curie
Most of us remember the importance of being charitable on a few rare occasions throughout the year,…
January 26, 2012
"The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment." -Johannes Kepler
So said the man who, in 1604, discovered the supernova that was the last to be seen, visually…
January 24, 2012
"Events are the ephemera of history; they pass across its stage like fireflies, hardly glimpsed before they settle back into darkness and as often as not into oblivion. Every event, however brief, has to be sure a contribution to make, lights up some dark corner or even some wide vista of history…
January 22, 2012
"I want more muscles! I go to the gym three or four times a week with a personal trainer. I can afford that now. I can't put on weight though, no matter how much I eat." -Christopher Parker
Many of us struggle in all sorts of aspects of our lives: to balance work and leisure, friends and family,…
January 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 we look out at galaxies throughout the Universe, we find that every so often -- about…
January 18, 2012
"We find them smaller and fainter, in constantly increasing numbers, and we know that we are reaching into space, farther and farther, until, with the faintest nebulae that can be detected with the greatest telescopes, we arrive at the frontier of the known Universe." -Edwin Hubble
While large…
January 16, 2012
"This is to show the world that I can paint like Titian: [See drawing, above.] Only technical details are missing." -Wolfgang Pauli
First theorized by Pauli all the way back in 1930, neutrinos are some of the most mysterious and puzzling particles ever discovered in nature. For starters, they…
January 15, 2012
"There is always a period when a man with a beard shaves it off. This period does not last. He returns headlong to his beard." -Jean Cocteau
Some traditions are older than we even know. Older than our great-grandparents, older than our countries, older even than the oldest songs and music we know…
January 12, 2012
"Nothing leads the scientist so astray as a premature truth." -Jean Rostand
One of the most awesome events, literally, that happens in this Universe is when stars -- giant nuclear furnaces like our Sun -- die in the most energetic way possible: a supernova.
Video credit: Max-Planck-Institut für…
January 11, 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
Making the entire Universe isn't easy. Even with 13.7 billion years of time, general…
January 9, 2012
"If you go through a lot of hammers each month, I don't think it necessarily means you're a hard worker. It may just mean that you have a lot to learn about proper hammer maintenance." -Jack Handey
The most common type of question I get asked by people genuinely wanting to know more about the…
January 8, 2012
"I don't run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet."
-Nadia Comaneci
Whether it's a new task, a new subject, a new place or a new person, life is full of wonderful new experiences, if you've got the…
January 6, 2012
"Every year I teach dozens of students at the University of Birmingham. Most of the students on the gender and sexuality courses are women. I guess this is because the boys don't think that gender applies to them: that it's a subject for girls."
-Louise Brown
You know the stereotype, perpetrated…
January 4, 2012
"At the last dim horizon, we search among ghostly errors of observations for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. The urge is older than history. It is not satisfied and it will not be oppressed." -Edwin Hubble
Given the relative peace of our night skies, combined…
