esiegel | 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." -John Patrick Shanley
Normally, each weekend I bring you a song and something I find informative, entertaining, or otherwise outstanding. This weekend, however, is a little different, because I got to see something last night that I want to share with you.
Have a look at Kidd Pivot, the Canadian…
esiegel | 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 kilometers away, in another country, neutrinos were created by one of the most powerful particle accelerators in the world. Protons at over 99.999% the speed of light were smashed into matter, creating a highly collimated beam of neutrinos, which was launched through the Earth at, presumably, speeds…
esiegel | 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) are the first three well-known digits to the famed number, π. As you know, it's the ratio of a perfect circle's circumference to its diameter.
Image credit: LeJyBy at Flickr Creative Commons, retrieved from sciencebuzz.org.
It's also very, very, very hard to calculate exactly, because it's…
esiegel | 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.
The question, of course, was asking about most difficult in terms of the course content that the student must learn. In any field, there are plenty of options to choose from, and while an individual student's mileage may vary, teachers and professors tend to learn very quickly just which courses (and…
esiegel | 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 whole or in part, by the Moon. As The Beta Band would have told you, this creates an
Eclipse.Depending on how close the Moon and Sun are to the Earth, either the Moon's shadow will fall on the Earth, creating a total solar eclipse, or the shadow will end before it ever reaches Earth, in which case we…
esiegel | 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 Tyson, and asked him, " What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?" His answer was indeed a very good, true, and astounding fact about the Universe: that all the complex atoms that make up everything we know owe their origins to ancient, exploded stars, dating back…
esiegel | 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 dog, because the world is not supposed to happen like that. In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is olds...Not news but olds, telling people that what they think they already know is true." -Terry Pratchett
We all like to think that our opinions are the result of…
esiegel | 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, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. While only some particles experience the nuclear and electromagnetic forces, anything with mass or energy -- which is everything we know of -- is subject to gravity.
Image credit: CountInfinity by Ananth.
The strong nuclear force binds all…
esiegel | 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, it's the fantastic imaginings of fiction and fantasy that help inspire new directions in science. Have a listen to German guitar great Peter Ratzenbeck's tune,
Sunday's Fantasy,while you sink your teeth into this.
Later this month -- from March 23rd to the 25th in Memphis, TN -- I'll be the…
esiegel | 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 daily lives to concerns around the globe, it's easy to forget just how vast the Universe is, and how small we all really are. You had so much fun playing with the Interactive Scale of the Universe tool a couple of weeks ago that I had to just give you a few things to ponder. We think of the Earth,…
esiegel | 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 historical origins and urban legends associated with it are incredibly interesting, but the reason there's any such thing as Leap Day at all is because of the physics of planet Earth.
Image credit: Mrs. Snyder at the Seven Hills School.
The Earth, of course, is rotating on its axis while…
esiegel | 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 years in every direction, there are structures large and small, dense and sparse, everywhere we've ever dared to look.
Image credit: R. Jay GaBany, Cosmotography.com.
In addition to the visible, luminous matter we see in the image above, there's both non-luminous normal matter and dark matter.…
esiegel | 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 teacher and professor, and a professional science communicator. And earlier this month, I learned that all of that hasn't kept me from tying my shoes incorrectly for the past 29 years. Not only that, but if you put as little thought into tying your shoes as I did, you've got a 50-50 shot of tying…
esiegel | 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 dozens of worlds -- planets and moons -- in our own Solar System, as well as hundreds (soon to spill into the thousands) of confirmed planets orbiting other stars, our Earth is still unique.
Image credit: The Suomi NPP Blue Marble, NASA / NOAA.
At least, it's unique as far as we know.
A smaller,…
esiegel | 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 observed what appeared to be neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light.
How did the experiment conclude this? Let's refresh your memory.
Image credit: OPERA collaboration; T. Adam et al.
A beam of high-energy protons, moving very close to the speed of light (but not quite there thanks to…
esiegel | 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 the day, I hope that you're happy with the person you are, the people you've surrounded yourself with, and the life you're living. Sometimes that involves persevering in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, as The National might tell you in their brilliant song,
Runaway,while other times that…
esiegel | 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 out of fuel, ending its life as we know it. It's happened a number of times before in recorded history, and will no doubt happen again. With a typical supernova rate of one per galaxy per century, we've got a number of nearby potential candidates for what the next supernova to occur in the Milky Way…
esiegel | 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 around the Universe in your own private, gargantuan structure, free from planets, Solar Systems, and even the rest of the galaxy was simply the most amazing idea to me.
Image credit: Star Wars' Wookieepedia.
That's what I wanted: a Death Star. Of course, you know what happens to the Death Star, don'…
esiegel | 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 always, click on all images for the highest-res version available.
5,000 light years away, this cluster of stars is loaded with the full gamut of stellar colors, from blue to white to red, and is easily visible through any astronomical tool from simple hand-held binoculars to pretty much any type of…
esiegel | 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 extent of both our experience and understanding has expanded tremendously since the time of Herschel. You must remember that to Herschel, living in the 18th century, there were but six known planets (including Earth) in the Solar System: Mercury through Saturn.
Image credit: Daniel Dendy.
While each…