The Oh My God Particle
In 1991 a single atomic nucleus slammed into our atmosphere with the intensity of a macroscopic object.
Are You a Boltzmann Brain?
Was an incredible drop in entropy responsible for the Big Bang? If that’s the case, this would lead us to conclude that a great many other things are possible, including the likelihood that you are a Boltzmann Brain.
Are We Living in an Ancestor Simulation? ft. Neil deGrasse T
The idea that our reality is a simulation is not as far-fetched as you may think. Many philosophers, scientists and tech-billionaires are seriously considering not just the possibility but the high probability that our civilization may be a program being run by another, more advanced alien civilization.
The Great American Eclipse
Get your eclipse glasses ready because the a total solar eclipse is an astronomical event unlike any other.
Martian Evolution
What will become of humanity after spend a few hundred years on Mars? What will happen after a few thousand? Evolution has, and still is, shaping humanity in rather drastic ways. How long will humans stop being human and become Martian?
The Fate of the First Stars
Population III stars were the very first stars in our universe and far larger than any we can see today. Where are they now?
Supervoids vs Colliding Universes!
If you study a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB, you may notice a large, deep blue splotch on the lower right. This area, creatively named the Cold Spot. Is this feature a statistical fluke, the signature of vast supervoids, or even the imprint of another universe?
Anti-Matter and Quantum Relativity
Paul Dirac’s insights into the nature of Quantum Mechanics laid the foundation for Quantum Field Theory and predicted the existence of anti-matter. Part 1 in our series on Quantum Field Theory.
The First Quantum Field Theory
Quantum mechanics is perhaps the most unintuitive theory ever devised. And yet it’s also the most successful, in terms of sheer predictive power. Simply by following the math of quantum mechanics, incredible discoveries have been made. Its wild success tells us that the mathematical description provided by quantum mechanics reflects deep truths about reality.
Feynman's Infinite Quantum Paths
There is a fundamental limit to the knowability of the universe. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle tells us that the more precisely we try to define one property, the less definable is its counterpart. Knowing a particle’s location perfectly means its velocity is unknowable. But unmeasured properties are not just uncertain; they are undefined.
Solving the Impossible in Quantum Field Theory
The equations of quantum field theory allow us to calculate the behaviour of subatomic particles by expressing them as vibrations in quantum fields. But even the most elegant and complete formulations of quantum physics – like the Dirac equation or Feynman’s path integral - become impossibly complicated when we try to use them on anything but the most simple systems.
The Real Star Wars
Anti-Satellite weaponry, giant X-ray lasers and kinetic impact missiles nicknamed the “Rods from God.” Find out about the history of the real star wars that have been waged over the past 50 years.
The Secrets of Feynman Diagrams
Unlock the secrets of Feynman Diagrams. Part 5 in our Quantum Field Theory series.
The One-Electron Universe
Could it be that all the electrons in the universe are simply one, single electron moving back and forth through time?
Extraterrestrial Superstorms
Earth has its share of monster storms, but even our most powerful hurricanes are a breeze compared to the great, planet-sized tempests of the gas giants.
First Detection of Life
In 1990, an experiment conceived by Carl Sagan was performed using using the Galileo spacecraft. The purpose? To detect life on a planet based on measurements by a space probe. The experiment was successful, and abundant life was unequivocally confirmed. That planet? The Earth. Now, a quarter century later, we’re on the verge of conducting that same experiment on a world orbiting another star.
White Holes
Lurking in the depths of the mathematics of Einstein’s general relativity is an object even stranger than the mysterious black hole. In fact it’s the black hole’s mirror twin, the white hole. Some even think that these could be the origin of our universe.
Neutron Stars Collide in New LIGO Signal?
Last year LIGO announced the detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes. The science world went a little crazy. Only a few weeks ago a new rumour emerged: that LIGO had, for the first time, spotted gravitational waves from the collision of a pair of neutron stars. If it’s true, some long-standing astrophysical mysteries are about to be unlocked.
The Future of Space Telescopes
The Kepler mission has determined that terrestrial planets are extremely common, and may orbit most stars in the Milky Way. But these planets are difficult to directly image because they’re dense and small. Our Sun is about ten billion times brighter than Earth. Train a distant telescope on us, and it will be overwhelmed by the Sun’s rays. So how can we find terrestrial planets around stars light
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