Listen in: How the Universe Got Its Spots January 20, 2023 Is the universe infinite or just really big? With this question, cosmologist Janna Levin announces the central theme of this book, which established her as one of the most direct, unorthodox, and creative voices in contemporary science. Read More
Back to the Moon January 18, 2023 Just over half a century since Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the lunar surface, a new space race to the Moon is well underway and rapidly gaining momentum. Read More
Why going to the Moon still matters December 12, 2022 The Moon is back on the space agenda. NASA’s Apollo project succeeded half a century ago in placing the first men on the Moon. We haven’t been back since 1972, but there is now great interest in returning. Read More
Richard S. Ellis on When Galaxies Were Born November 10, 2022 Astronomers are like time travelers, scanning the night sky for the outermost galaxies that first came into being when our universe was a mere fraction of its present age. Read More
Traveling to the stars October 21, 2022 Barely a week goes by without learning about a newly discovered planet circling some nearby, but still quite distant, star. It wasn’t until the 1990s that scientists had compelling evidence that such exoplanets existed, and the pace of their discovery since then has been astonishing. Read More
Virginia Trimble and David Weintraub on The Sky is for Everyone August 03, 2022 The Sky Is for Everyone is an internationally diverse collection of autobiographical essays by women who broke down barriers and changed the face of modern astronomy. Read More
Listen in: The Sky Is for Everyone July 07, 2022 The Sky Is for Everyone is an internationally diverse collection of autobiographical essays by women who broke down barriers and changed the face of modern astronomy. Start listening to Chapter 1 of the audiobook. Read More
Lightning and animals June 21, 2022 June 19–25, 2022 is Lightning Safety Awareness Week—an annual public safety campaign of the National Weather Service. The campaign was initiated in 2001 to highlight the fact that lightning has killed more Americans than any other weather factor. Read More
Listen in: The Joy of Science May 05, 2022 The Joy of Science, narrated by acclaimed quantum physicist Jim Al-Khalili, presents 8 short lessons on how to unlock the clarity, empowerment, and joy of thinking and living a little more scientifically. Read More
The universe from a 3D perspective April 25, 2022 The universe is huge. If we could travel at the speed of light (and we can’t) it would take us only about a second to go to the Moon. Read More
Scientific rationalism in an irrational world April 08, 2022 As a young student in the mid-1980s, I read a popular science book called To Acknowledge the Wonder by Euan Squires about the then latest ideas in fundamental physics. At a time when I was contemplating a career in physics, the chance to acknowledge the wonders of the physical world was what really inspired me to devote my life to science. Read More
So Simple a Beginning March 11, 2022 The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. Read More
The physicality of life February 15, 2022 DNA is stuff: physical, tangible, material. We all know this; we can even picture in our minds its famous double helical form. Read More
Why Trust Science? December 14, 2021 Are doctors right when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when so many of our political leaders don’t? Read More
Shock value: The life and death story of electricity November 22, 2021 It is an irony of our age that while electricity increasingly drives nearly every aspect of our daily lives, we continue to view it as some kind of mysterious external physical force that powers our appliances rather than an internal and vital biological force that animates our bodies. Read More
