On August 21st, 2017, a total eclipse will hit 14 states. Here’s your guide to everything you need to know. “…and the Sun has perished out of heaven, and an […]

The greatest advances in human history have come from science and scientific knowledge. Don’t stop now. “Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.” […]

Did they perform their analysis sub-optimally? Maybe. But gravitational waves were seen no matter what. “We hope that interested people will repeat our calculations and will make up their own minds […]

Meet LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. Yes, it’s giant LIGO, in space, and it’s happening! “Einstein’s gravitational theory, which is said to be the greatest single achievement of theoretical […]

A new podcast, to cover an incredible story of why we can exist at all. “Already in my original paper I stressed the circumstance that I was unable to give a […]

The smart money is still on LIGO, but there sure looks like something funny is happening if the new group is correct. This article was contributed by Sabine Hossenfelder. Sabine […]

Gravitational waves and electromagnetic ones don’t need to go together. But physics says it’s possible; what do the observations say? “The black holes collide in complete darkness. None of the […]

Did you guess ‘resonance’? Guess again. “At least six lamp posts were snapped off while I watched. A few minutes later, I saw a side girder bulge out. But, though the […]

If the LHC can’t produce new fundamental particles, the collisions coming from it still a chance to teach us something incredible. “It was quite the most incredible event that has […]

The aptly named ‘Fireworks galaxy’ just had its tenth supernova in the past century, setting a record. Learn how to see it! “When a massive star explodes at the end of […]

Could there be a massive, giant planet beyond Neptune? Here’s what the science says… for now. “Finding out that something you have just discovered is considered all but impossible is one […]

A live-blog event happened a week ago, but you can catch the entire thing anew here, right now! “We have never observed infinity in nature. Whenever you have infinities in […]

Sometimes, designing a careful experiment and measuring absolutely no effect can be the most important result of all. “It appears, from all that precedes, reasonably certain that if there be any […]

Wanting there to be something beyond the standard model may be influencing what we actually investigate. “In recent years several new particles have been discovered which are currently assumed to […]

You lose whether you use protons or electrons in your collider, for different reasons. Could the unstable muon solve both problems? “It does not matter how slowly you go as […]

And how if you try this with someone shorter than you are, you’ll find it extra convincing! “I drive from Florida to California all the time, and it’s flat to […]

What would energy without a particle to attach itself to even look like? “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on […]

The answer lies billions of years in the past. “Dark matter or invisible element?You decide.” –Toba Beta When we look out at the luminous matter in the Universe — stars, galaxies, clusters of […]

If you heard about time crystals, be aware that they do exist. But learn what they mean. “Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time […]

Space is getting bigger, but atoms, humans, Earth and our Milky Way stay the same size. How is this possible? “The Universe is expanding the way your mind is expanding. […]

We take for granted how much the Moon does for Earth, but not all of the changes would be bad. “If we get rid of the moon, women, those menstrual cycles […]

And England almost burned themselves down as a result. “When Benjamin Franklin inveted the lightning rod, the clergy, both in England and America, with enthusiastic support of George III, condemned it […]

Hydrogen is #1, Helium is #2. Who’s number 3? Hint: it’s not #3 in the periodic table! “It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign […]

Sometimes science is stranger than fiction. “To morrow, I believe, is to be an eclipse of the sun, and I think it perfectly meet and proper that the sun in the […]

It’s the most fundamental fabric of the Universe itself. But how does it work? “‘Space-time’ — that hideous hybrid whose very hyphen looks phoney.” –Vladimir Nabokov When it comes to understanding the Universe, there […]

Why weightlessness is possible, even if there’s no place you can hide from the Universe’s longest-range force. “It was a strange lightness, a drifting feeling. Zero gravity. I understood that […]

And when you demand ‘perfectly identical,’ just how high of a bar are you setting? “Lives are snowflakes — unique in detail, forming patterns we have seen before, but as like one another […]

Just because we know it’s real doesn’t mean it’s easy to create in a lab. “For me the best answer is not in words but in measurements.” –Elena Aprile Atoms, molecules, […]

You don’t have to detect a particle to know that dark matter is real. “You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t care.” –Clayton Christensen In the 1970s, Vera Rubin’s observations showed […]

If we left on New Years Day, how close could we get if we kept accelerating every second of every day? “The very closest stars would require many years to visit, […]