startswithabang

[startswithabang]

Alright, it's announcement time!

I am having shoulder surgery today (should be routine), with a long recovery ahead.

I'll be offline, recovering, until my return on May 6th.

Be good to each other!

Meanwhile, enjoy new stories each weekday here!

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What was it like when human beings transformed the Earth?

The final part of an epic, more than 30-part series on the history of the Universe. Check out the full series with a lovely infographic here courtesy of Big Think!

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What was it like when humans first arose on planet Earth?

For 99.998% of the Universe's history, there were no human beings.

Here are the great evolutionary and historical steps that allowed our species to come into existence.

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What was it like when mammals appeared and thrived?

Once life became complex and differentiated, plants, animals, and fungi began to dominate planet Earth.

Here's how mammals, after 500 million years, finally rose to prominence.

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What was it like when life on Earth became complex?

Just four evolutionary advances took us from simple life to the complex, differentiated life that has dominated Earth for more than the last half-a-billion years.

But how frequent are those steps?

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What was it like when oxygen killed almost all life on Earth?

Oxygen: giver of animal life or the cause of the greatest extinction event in Earth's history?

Why not both?

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How do symmetries lead to conservation laws?

#AskEthan

The profound connection between physical conserved quantities and symmetries of a physical theory go back more than a century to one unheralded woman: Emmy Noether.

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Particle physics finally charts a healthy path forward

No more infighting. No more (fake) "certainty" about SUSY or WIMP dark matter. No more budget-busting projects.

Particle physicists finally learn their lesson, charting a course to a bright future.

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How ground-based astronomers overcome Earth’s atmosphere

Two incredible and underappreciated technologies, the sodium laser and the deformable mirror, allow ground-based telescopes to sometimes even take sharper images than space-based ones like Hubble.

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How to measure a lunar month during the solar eclipse

Not in the path of totality during the solar eclipse?

No problem; you can still use the partial eclipse you do have to measure the duration of a lunar month.

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5 total mistakes to avoid at the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse

The April 8 total solar eclipse is almost here.

If you want to make the most of totality, make like Admiral Ackbar and avoid these 5 common traps.

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Has a new study disproven dark matter and dark energy?

#AskEthan

That news study that "disproved dark matter, dark energy, and claimed the Universe is twice as old as we think?"

Come learn these invaluable lessons about how science (and scicomm) work.

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How logic and reasoning can fail as scientific tools

Using logic and reasoning to reach scientific conclusions only works when the Universe makes sense using the logic and reasoning we're used to.

All too often, it doesn't.

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Flagship NASA space telescope faces a penny-pinching death

In the Presidential FY2025 budget request, Biden called for decommissioning NASA's Chandra: our flagship X-ray telescope.

The reasons given? All untrue.

So here's what we can do.

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Why “incompleteness” matters in theoretical physics

From Maxwell to Einstein to Feynman to Guth, fixing an incompleteness in theoretical physics has led to profound advances.

Don't give up on the approach just yet!

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March 25, 2024’s full moon portends April 8th’s solar eclipse

A penumbral lunar eclipse is easily the most boring species of eclipse to occur on Earth.

But March 25th's is special, as it paves the way for a spectacular solar eclipse on April 8th.

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How did matter come to exist in our Universe?

#AskEthan

Our Universe contains one extra matter particle for every 1.6 billion photons that exist.

How did it get to be this way?