September 26, 2011
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that." -Richard Feynman
Last…
September 24, 2011
"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
We're all used to trusting our senses for information about this world. And while there are certainly…
September 22, 2011
"Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules." -Douglas Adams
My inbox is on fire today with messages about this story about neutrinos breaking the speed of light:
What's going on here? A group (a large group, mind you) of physicists…
September 22, 2011
"A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every other fact in the universe, and that is how you can tell whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit anything except another lie."
-Robert Green Ingersoll
One of the most amazing…
September 21, 2011
"When Columbus lived, people thought that the earth was flat. They believed the Atlantic Ocean to be filled with monsters large enough to devour their ships, and with fearful waterfalls over which their frail vessels would plunge to destruction. Columbus had to fight these foolish beliefs in order…
September 19, 2011
"After all, the universe required ten billion years of evolution before life was even possible; the evolution of the stars and the evolving of new chemical elements in the nuclear furnaces of the stars were indispensable prerequisites for the generation of life." -John Polkinghorne
There are close…
September 17, 2011
"When you roll around in the mud with a pig, you both get dirty, and the pig enjoys it." -Old Folk Wisdom
One of the things I've learned over the time I've been blogging is that, no matter what position you take on any issue, whether it's science, politics, religion, morality, or anything else, is…
September 16, 2011
Daughter, age 7: "Daddy, will the Earth always go around the Sun forever?"
Louis CK: "Well no, at some point the Sun is going to explode."
Daughter: (starts crying)
Louis CK: "Oh honey, this is not going to happen until you and everyone you know has been dead for a very long time."
Daughter: (…
September 14, 2011
[caption id="attachment_19545" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Image credit: NASA and the James Webb Space Telescope Team."]
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The news has just come in: the United States Senate has decided to fully fund the James Webb Space Telescope, and it should be set to launch in 2018,…
September 14, 2011
"We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but is somewhat beauty and poetry." -Maria Mitchell
When you look up at the vastness of the night sky, if you've got few clouds, no Moon and sufficient darkness, you won't merely see thousands of tiny white…
September 12, 2011
"Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed." -Howard Nemerov
I know many of you are still mad at the night sky because of the full Moon preventing you from seeing the recent, close-by supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy, at least until the end…
September 10, 2011
"O, how glorious would it be to set my heel upon the Pole and turn myself 360 degrees in a second!" -Joseph Banks
This weekend, perhaps more than most, I think we're all going to need something fun, inspiring, and different to enjoy. So I present to you an extremely talented but not well-known…
September 9, 2011
"After your death you will be what you were before your birth." -Arthur Schopenhauer
If only every star's death could be as glorious as a supernova, rocketing anywhere from thousands to millions of Earth-masses out of a star and into interstellar space. When we get one in our galaxy, like we do…
September 8, 2011
"A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else." -John Burroughs
The greatest tool for astronomers of the past 20 years has, without a doubt, been the Hubble Space Telescope.
Image credit: NASA; view from the Space Shuttle.
Since its launch in 1990, it's…
September 6, 2011
"We have found a strange footprint on the shores of the unknown." -Arthur Eddington
Since the dawn of mankind, we've left innumerable footsteps across the lands, as we've traveled far and wide across the globe.
Image credit: Greg Prohl.
But (with very rare exceptions) these footsteps don't last.…
September 5, 2011
"But I'm also talking about American businessmen doing what they were born to do. Make things. We've stopped making and become a country of consumers. Well, I, for one, am done consuming. And I'm ready to make." -Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock
I don't normally write about what's going on in my personal life…
September 3, 2011
"As long as one person lives in darkness then it seems to be a responsibility to tell other people." -Bill Hicks
If you've ever been out in the wilderness at night, in a place where it truly gets dark, and where you've got, as the English band Keane would tell you,
Clear Skies,you will find…
September 2, 2011
"When you make the finding yourself -- even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light -- you'll never forget it." -Carl Sagan
When we talk about dark matter and its alternatives, we are talking about no less a task than explaining the structure of every large object in the Universe. This…
August 31, 2011
"I trust in nature for the stable laws of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant and autumn garner to the end of time." -Robert Browning
Like everything else that we know of in the Universe -- galaxies, stars, and planets -- human beings are made out of atoms.
Image credit: J. Roche at Ohio…
August 30, 2011
"My girl, my girl, don't you lie to me,
tell me where did you sleep last night?
In the pines, in the pines, where the Sun don't ever shine,
I'll shiver the whole night through." -Leadbelly, among many other variations
It's already been a couple of months since I wrote about Global Warming, and was…
August 28, 2011
"Some of them act badly because they've had a hard life, or have been mistreated...but, like people, some of them are just jerks. Stop that, Mr. Simpson." -The Simpsons
Sometimes, it's good to just take a step back and enjoy something that's easy. There's a lot in this world to think about, worry…
August 26, 2011
"A cloud is made of billows upon billows upon billows that look like clouds. As you come closer to a cloud you don't get something smooth, but irregularities at a smaller scale." -Benoit Mandelbrot
It isn't just the clouds that appear smooth, but aren't if you zoom in close. In fact, it isn't just…
August 25, 2011
"Fortunately for serious minds, a bias recognized is a bias sterilized." -Benjamin Haydon
You might look up at the night sky, at the vast canopy of stars we can see, and ask, exactly, what we're seeing?
Image credit: Jim at Pictures Of My Universe.
Thousands upon thousands of stars, of course,…
August 23, 2011
"The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering." -Ben Okri
Let me take you back 20 years, to the early 1990s. Back then, the world's most powerful particle accelerator was right here in the United…
August 21, 2011
"The heart, Ramone. Don't forget the heart. Aim for the heart, or you'll never stop me." -Clint Eastwood, in A Fistful of Dollars
Sometimes, the greatest things that art, music, or even astronomy has to offer are the traditional standards that have been around for a very long time. Only, a new…
August 20, 2011
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
-Winston Churchill
Ever wonder what will happen to the Earth once the Sun dies? Although it's happening very slowly, the Sun is burning through the nuclear fuel that powers it, giving off a tremendous amount of energy all the…
August 18, 2011
"The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience." -Milton Friedman
Dark matter is one of the most important components of the Universe today. And yet in the public's eye, almost no one accepts it the way, say, the Big Bang is accepted. But it…
August 16, 2011
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." -Winston Churchill
It's often said that you can't get something from nothing. And while this may be true for most practical applications of your life, it isn't true for our…
August 14, 2011
"Anyone who has spent any time in space will love it for the rest of their lives. I achieved my childhood dream of the sky." -Valentina Tereshkova
We all have our heroes. Many of them meet with tragedy, and get eulogized in song. This week, I present to you a wonderful, bluegrass cover by Keller…
August 12, 2011
"...it is reasonable to hope that in the not too distant future we shall be competent to understand so simple a thing as a star." -Arthur Eddington, 1926
(For Mike H., who wanted to know.)
The Sun -- like nearly all stars -- burns bright through its nuclear reactions, sending light, heat and energy…
