Comments of the Week
esiegel | October 3, 2015“Today we have touched Mars. There is life on Mars, and it is us—extensions of our eyes in all directions, extensions of our mind, extensions of our heart and soul have touched Mars today. That's the message to look for there: We are on Mars. We are the Martians!” -Ray Bradbury
It was a busy week, from science to politics to the simple question of Earth’s color here at Starts With A Bang. As always, you didn’t disappoint, with plenty to say about it all, and I’m stoked to continue the conversation. Just in case you missed anything:
Are inflation and dark energy connected? (for Ask Ethan),
The…
esiegel | September 25, 2015“Making a wrong decision is understandable. Refusing to search continually for learning is not.” -Phil Crosby
It was a busy week, from science to politics to the simple question of Earth's color here at Starts With A Bang. As always, you didn't disappoint, with plenty to say about it all, and I'm stoked to continue the conversation. Just in case you missed anything:
How, exactly, did Newton fail? (for Ask Ethan),
Mockery gets you nowhere (for our Weekend Diversion),
50,000 evolving galaxies (for Mostly Mute Monday),
Why is Earth blue?,
Dear Ben Carson: an open letter,
and Logic is no match…
esiegel | September 19, 2015“Making a wrong decision is understandable. Refusing to search continually for learning is not." -Phil Crosby
From searching for ET to galaxies beyond what Hubble can see, as well as two great guest posts, it's been an incredible week here at Starts With A Bang. Best of all, you've had plenty to say about it all, and so now's our chance to continue the conversation. Here's what you might have missed:
Are we looking for ET all wrong? (for Ask Ethan),
Draw your own circuits (for our Weekend Diversion),
The glory of Saturn's rings (for Mostly Mute Monday),
Maxwell's unification revolution (a…
esiegel | September 12, 2015"I am quite surprised that it happened during my lifetime. It is nice to be right about something sometimes." -Peter Higgs
The LHC at CERN proved its value, for sure, but there are lots of other opinions floating around. On this and all topics at Starts With A Bang, you're free to have your say! Here's the ground we've covered, in case you missed anything:
What if we grew a fourth spatial dimension? (for Ask Ethan),
Obsession, for cats? (for our Weekend Diversion),
A runaway blue giant (for Mostly Mute Monday),
"Why do I have to learn this?", (a back-to-school special),
Will the LHC be the…
esiegel | September 5, 2015“I was strongly encouraged by a science teacher who took an interest in me and presented me with a key to the laboratory to allow me to work whenever I wanted.” -Frederick Reines, discoverer of the first neutrino
That kind of education is irreplaceable, and at Starts With A Bang we do our best to bring the stories, knowledge and wonder of the Universe to everyone. Here's a look back at what we hit on this past week:
Have we solved the black hole information paradox? (for Ask Ethan),
The ultimate superhero cake (for our Weekend Diversion),
See inside the swirling storms of Saturn (for Mostly…
esiegel | August 29, 2015“To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or distinction than that connected with advances in science.” -Isaac Newton
And the advances continue, not just here at Starts With A Bang but everywhere humans are engaged in the practice of gathering knowledge about the world and Universe itself. This past week, we covered:
Is everything in the Universe the same age? (for Ask Ethan),
The horror and beauty of California's wildfires (for our Weekend Diversion),
A pulsing cosmic echo (for Mostly Mute Monday),
How fast are we moving through space?,
10 things you should know about…
esiegel | August 22, 2015"Once you accept that we're all imperfect, it's the most liberating thing in the world. Then you can go around making mistakes and saying the wrong thing and tripping over on the street and all that and not feel worried." -Paloma Faith
Yet it's the imperfections in the Universe that truly enable the most interesting things within it to exist at all. We covered just a smattering of them here at Starts With A Bang this past week, including:
Did the Universe need to be born "lumpy" (for Ask Ethan),
Work out to the Maxx (for our Weekend Diversion),
Inside the Carina Nebula (for Mostly Mute Monday…
esiegel | August 15, 2015“I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.” -Jack London
When you think about the Universe all the time, from the smallest scales and the most fundamental particles to the largest cosmic structures and everything in between, the hard part isn't choosing a topic to discuss; it…
esiegel | August 8, 2015"The specific moral is that within the standard model the [cosmic microwave background] temperature is a key parameter in fixing the thermal and dynamical history of the Universe. The measurement of this parameter made physical cosmology much more definite, and the detection of the radiation made the Big Bang cosmology a good deal more credible." -P.J.E. Peebles
The Universe is never going to run out of wonders for us to discover and explore at a deep level, from fundamental truths to how the Universe assembles all its structures. Here at Starts With A Bang, we covered just a slice of it:
How…
esiegel | August 1, 2015“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
This past week saw a whole lot of interesting things happen, including tonight's second full moon of the month: a rare blue moon. In my life, I saw the International Space Station for the first time, but here at Starts With A Bang, there was so much to learn about and share, including:
When will the stars go dark? (for Ask Ethan),
Advertising vs. art (for our Weekend…
esiegel | July 25, 2015“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
This past week was the 46th anniversary of the first Moon landing for humanity, and yet at Starts With A Bang there was so much going on in the Universe we glossed right over it! Here's what you might have missed:
Can moons have moons? (for Ask Ethan),
The best mining destination (for our Weekend Diversion),
Out of the darkness (for Mostly Mute Monday),
Astronomy at the…
esiegel | July 18, 2015“Just as a Chihuahua is still a dog, these ice dwarfs are still planetary bodies. The misfit becomes the average. The Pluto-like objects are more typical in our solar system than the nearby planets we first knew.” -Alan Stern
The last week here at Starts With A Bang saw some great articles that went from Pluto to stars to nebulae to the theoretical limits of our understanding of everything. When we put it all together, here's what we've covered:
Is the multiverse science? (for Ask Ethan),
The best discoveries from the High Sierra Music Festival (for our Weekend Diversion),
The beauty of…
esiegel | July 11, 2015“If somebody's going to pay money to come see you perform, then it should be something to see.” -Michael Trent
The past two weeks at Starts With A Bang have been awesome for all we've covered, even with a (brief) vacation on my part thrown in there. (Don't worry, you'll get the best of it this weekend!) Here's what we've looked at, in case you've missed anything:
Could dark matter not exist? (for Ask Ethan),
Epic stop-motion karate duel (for our Weekend Diversion),
Underneath your clouds (for Mostly Mute Monday),
How does gravity escape from a black hole? (for Jillian Scudder's Astroquizzical…
esiegel | June 27, 2015“We are a singularity that makes music out of noise because we must hurry. We make a harvest of loneliness and desiring in the blank wasteland of the cosmos.” -Jack Gilbert
This past week at Starts With A Bang saw five new stories about the Universe, from our own home planet to topics about the birth of the Universe (and how we know it broke down that way), as well as our limits. Check out what we’ve covered:
Newton's random apple (for Ask Ethan),
Velociprincesses (for our Weekend Diversion),
The first bone of the Milky Way's skeleton (for Mostly Mute Monday),
Exoplanets & the search for…
esiegel | June 20, 2015“We are a singularity that makes music out of noise because we must hurry. We make a harvest of loneliness and desiring in the blank wasteland of the cosmos.” -Jack Gilbert
Although you had lots to say, it came almost exclusively on two of our posts, so let's jump right in and see if we can expand what we've been talking about on your Comments of the Week!
Image credit: Ethan Shipulski, via http://mindblowingphysics.pbworks.com/w/page/52081285/Graviton%202012.
From Denier on temperature limits and singularities: "If at “some high temperature, you will restore the potential that caused our…
esiegel | June 13, 2015"You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." -Johnny Cash
This past week at Starts With A Bang saw quite a lot go down, and you were with me for all of it, including one of the toughest posts (as far as being out of my area-of-expertise) I've ever written. Here's what we've covered, in case you missed anything:
Does quantum gravity need string theory? (for Ask Ethan),
More to learn (about my June 22 theatre…
esiegel | June 6, 2015"Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details." -Heraclitus
This past week at Starts With A Bang put on quite a show, and you -- as always -- didn't disappoint. If you missed anything, here's what went on:
Learning to chill (a guest post from Paul Halpern),
Does a black hole have a shape? (a fascinating Astroquizzical from Jillian Scudder),
Muons, relativity & a new record? (for Ask Ethan),
Keep the Universe going (introducing our Patreon, for our Weekend Diversion),
Sunsets from space (for Mostly Mute Monday),
Pluto's unique moons, and
What would you…
esiegel | May 30, 2015"Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own." -Georg C. Lichtenberg
There was so much action on Starts With A Bang this week, from darkness to the brightest lights, that it's going to be a bear choosing what to highlight from the comments. Here's what this past week saw:
The Universe's dark ages (for Ask Ethan),
The logic that stumped Brooklyn Nine-Nine (for our Weekend Diversion),
The largest eruption in the known Universe (for Mostly Mute Monday),
How to travel faster than light without really trying (a great piece from Brian Koberlein),
Will the LHC be…
esiegel | May 23, 2015"An asteroid or a supervolcano could certainly destroy us, but we also face risks the dinosaurs never saw: An engineered virus, nuclear war, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us." -Elon Musk
We've covered a ton this week on Starts With A Bang, ranging from the earliest times to the ultra-theoretical to the present day and what's going on right here on Earth. Take a look back if you missed anything, as we've covered:
Where is the cosmic microwave background? (for Ask Ethan),
Raw ingredients, cubed (for our Weekend Diversion),…
esiegel | May 16, 2015“I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.” -Charlotte Brontë
Our exploration of the Universe, near and far, continues here on Starts With A Bang, as we've looked at the entire Universe, our local corner of it, dark matter and even the most human of issues. Make sure you catch up on anything you missed, including:
The shape of the Universe (for Ask Ethan),
The friends star (for our LEGO-rich Weekend…