November 13, 2011
"It's Doctor Evil. I didn't spend six years in Evil Medical School to be called 'mister,' thank you very much." -Dr. Evil
This weekend, I'd like to start by introducing you to the sounds of Galactic Funk, a group whose cosmically epic name is surpassed by their novel, entrancing sound, as…
November 11, 2011
"After all, facts are facts, and although we may quote one to another with a chuckle the words of the Wise Statesman, 'Lies - damned lies - and statistics,' still there are some easy figures the simplest must understand, and the astutest cannot wriggle out of." -Leonard Courtney, 1895
"The first…
November 9, 2011
"A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success from inhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievements." -Orison Swett Marden
One of the greatest assumptions we make in our study of the laws of nature is, well, that they're laws of nature, not particularly special to where…
November 7, 2011
"Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity." -Joseph Addison
One of the most brilliant phenomena found in our atmosphere is that of a…
November 5, 2011
"Events often move faster than our ability to comprehend them." -Lee H. Hamilton
But sometimes, going ever faster is where all the fun is at. Have a listen to the Stray Cats, from their debut album, as they plow through their title track,
Built For Speed.Well, believe it or not, I think my car just…
November 4, 2011
"They credited us with the birth of that sort of heavy metal thing. Well, if that's the case, there should be an immediate abortion." -Ginger Baker
As hard as it may be to believe, take a look outside. I don't mean a glance, I mean to take a real look. At all the things there are to see -- the…
November 2, 2011
"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible." -Vladimir Nabokov
The wonderful images we take of deep space -- from distant galaxies to all the stars, clusters, and nebulae within our own galaxy --…
October 31, 2011
"I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice." -Wolverine
For those of you who thought long and hard about the song I gave you yesterday, perhaps you anticipated that there might have been a connection to this years costume. It's a little tenuous, but this year? The…
October 30, 2011
"If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween." -Doug Coupland
Halloween is just around the corner, and there's no better song to listen to for the holiday spirit than Warren Zevon's classic,
Werewolves Of London.Those of you who've…
October 28, 2011
"Every true, eternal problem is an equally true, eternal fault; every answer an atonement, every realisation an improvement." -Otto Weininger
The best measurements of the distant Universe -- out beyond our galaxy -- have led us to the current picture of exactly what our Universe is doing: expanding…
October 26, 2011
"Where there is no patrol car, there is no speed limit." -Peter Beckmann
You've of course heard the news that the OPERA collaboration in Italy has measured what appears to be neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light.
Image credit: Raoul Pop.
The way they did it was pretty straightforward.…
October 25, 2011
"In science, even when you're convinced that you know the right answer, you keep testing your understanding in new ways. You keep looking for phenomena that might do something different than what your best ideas and theories predict. As long as there's a Universe out there to investigate, science…
October 24, 2011
"Science is facts; just as houses are made of stone, so is science made of facts. But a pile of stones is not a house, and a collection of facts is not necessarily science." -Jules Henri Poincaré
The higher you fall from, the faster you'll be moving when you hit the ground.
Image credit: Marianne…
October 22, 2011
"I see miracles all around me
Stop and look, it's all astounding
Water, fire, air and dirt
Fucking magnets, how do they work?
And I don't wanna talk to no scientist,
Y'all motherfuckers lyin', and gettin' me pissed." -Insane Clown Posse
While music certainly has the power to be uplifting, the…
October 21, 2011
"By now you must know that your father can never be turned from the Dark Side. So will it be with you." -Emperor Palpatine, Return of the Jedi
You've heard about dark matter. It's the notion that the Universe is somehow very much different than the small corner of it that we're most familiar with…
October 18, 2011
"If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew." -Albert Einstein
One of the most famous…
October 17, 2011
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." -Joseph Campbell
Space, as you know, is mostly empty, as the typical distance between galaxies far exceeds the size of the galaxies themselves.
But in a few select regions of the Universe, where the mass density is unusually above average,…
October 16, 2011
"Appearances are often deceiving." -Aesop
While the Louvin Brothers might tell you that something else is more deceiving than appearances, as they sing
Satan Lied To Me,there's an internet site out there I've just discovered that celebrates creativity in deceptive appearances.
For your enjoyment, I…
October 14, 2011
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." -Albert Einstein
Now that you know how many galaxies are in our expanding Universe, you might be wondering about their speeds.
After all, since the Universe is expanding, that means that the farther away a galaxy is from us,…
October 13, 2011
"The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand…
October 11, 2011
"The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it." -Alan Saporta
One of the greatest puzzles in the Universe today is just why the Universe is structured the way it is.
Image credit: Robert Gendler / Hubble Legacy Archive.
For the individual galaxies that we see, the puzzle is why they…
October 10, 2011
"It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small." -Neil Armstrong
It still boggles my mind when I think about it, every time I look up at the…
October 8, 2011
"Oh, you gonna love this, boy. Tyrone calls you up, you know -- in the game -- and he says 'I can dig more clams than you, stupid!' And you gotta say 'Nuh-uh, boy!' And y'all gotta race down to the beach with your buckets and your shovels, and the object of the game...is to find parking." -Meatwad…
October 6, 2011
"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." -Edgar Allen Poe
Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize in Physics was announced for the discovery that the Universe is not only expanding,
but that this expansion…
October 4, 2011
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. -Robert Frost
Ever since the discovery of the…
October 3, 2011
"To me it made no sense to pull one of even a few objects out of the swarm and call them something other than part of the swarm." -Mike Brown, A.K.A. PlutoKiller
In our Solar System, the four rocky planets dominate the inner portion, while the four gas giants dominate the outer Solar System. But…
October 2, 2011
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless…
September 30, 2011
"We should do astronomy because it is beautiful and because it is fun. We should do it because people want to know. We want to know our place in the universe and how things happen." -John Bahcall
Of course you're all going to watch the exciting Live interview with me on KGW tonight (streaming here…
September 28, 2011
"Neutrinos, they are very small.
They have no charge and have no mass
And do not interact at all.
The earth is just a silly ball
To them, through which they simply pass,
Like dustmaids down a drafty hall
Or photons through a sheet of glass.
They snub the most exquisite gas,
Ignore the most…
September 28, 2011
"If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let 'em go, because, man, they're gone." -Jack Handey
Take a look at our home planet, Earth, and one of the things you'll notice is that over 70% of the surface is coated in water.
Image credit: NASA / Apollo 17.
We all know why this is, of…
