What makes most scientists most excited is the same thing that—if they’ve heard about it—makes many non-scientists wonder if scientists are nuts: Way more than half of “the stuff the universe is made of” is still a mystery to scientists. Which may strike you as a crazy thing to realize, and a crazy thing to say. […]
This New Scientist article by Leah Crane is a plot-device-generator gift for science fiction writers. It begins: “Travel far enough in the universe and you could end up back where you began. Measurements from the Planck space observatory have shown that the universe might be shaped like a sphere rather than a flat sheet, which […]
There are many alternate histories of the universe. Here are two. A Briefer History of the Universe Eric Schulman’s 60-second-long History of the Universe began as a print piece (“A History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less,” in the Jan/Feb 1997 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research), had its first public performance as […]
There are many ways to look at the span of sizes of things in the universe. Here are three. The cryptically named xurb1a made this video called “The Universe in 4 minutes“: Some years ago, Charles and Ray Eames made this video called “Powers of Ten“: Between way back then and now, Eric Schulman wrote […]
How many universes are necessary for an ice cream to melt? Asks Professor Milan M. Ćirković [pictured] of the Astronomical Observatory Belgrade, Serbia, in the Serbian Astronomical Journal, Vol. 166, page 55-59. His paper considers the possibilities of other universes where a soft ice cream, left to its own devices, might be generally more likely […]
“Collapse of the universe is closer than ever before“, says a headline in Space Daily. The report goes on to say: Now we have performed more precise calculations, and we see two things: Yes, the universe will probably collapse , and: A collapse is even more likely than the old calculations predicted”, says Jens Frederik […]
Of the many ways to explore the universe, there are some we can recommend, and one we do not. 1. Here’s a way we do NOT recommend: 2. Here’s one we do recommend. Corey Powell describes it as “The Most Amazing Map You’ll See Today (No Matter What Day It Is)“. It’s a 17-minute video […]
Physicists, philosophers and artists who have been struggling to understand the intricacies, enigmas and counterintuitivenesses of the structure of the universe now have a new resource which might help them – a ‘Useable Electromagnetic Blueprint of the Structure of Space’. For which a company called Hyperspace Pty Ltd (headed by inventor Christopher Heyring of Eagle […]
Robert Kirshner‘s interview (conducted by Tam Hunt) under the headline “Dark Energy, and Making Sense of the Unseen — In a conversation with Robert Kirshner, the famed Harvard astrophysicist opens up about an ‘extravagant universe’“, is fun and interesting. But it’s not (and nothing could be) as fun and interesting as the keynote address he gave […]
According to Wikipedia, a Blobject (n.) is: “… a design product, often a household object, distinguished by smooth flowing curves, bright colors, and an absence of sharp edges.” But for philosophers (ontologists in particular), a Blobject can be more, much more, than that … “Imagine a world consisting entirely of gunkish, jello-ish, stuff.” viz., the […]