17 Apr, 2018

Why are conditions in our universe conducive to life? The properties of matter and energy, as well as we know them today, are detailed in theories like General Relativity and the Standard Model of Particle Physics. As explained by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the Standard Model is a set of basic building blocks of matter governed by four fundamental forces. The building blocks include subatomic particles like leptons and quarks and their relatives; the forces are named

07 Apr, 2018

Here’s a riddle. Most astronomers agree that the Big Bang, the start of our universe, began about 13.8 billion years ago. So how would you describe the period 14 billion years ago? Was everything dark? Did a void or a vacuum exist? No, is the scientific consensus. While we may discuss conditions 12 billion or nearly 13.8 billion years in the past, the phrase 14 billion years ago is meaningless. No such period existed. *** The standard Big Bang theory Time itself began, just as the entire

27 Mar, 2018

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is deepening our understanding of the solar system’s largest planet, with findings that suggest its swirling weather patterns continue 1,900 miles into the atmosphere. The planet is about 89,000 miles across at the equator, so we now know that leaves a core below the weather of more than 85,000 miles in diameter. Launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, in 2011, Juno reached Jupiter in 2016. Between then and March 8, when the latest discoveries were announced, it had carried out

17 Mar, 2018

A boy in his early teens stood beside Stephen Hawking's wheelchair, asking a scientific question. The world's most famous astrophysicist smiled up at him with his lopsided grin -- and then nothing happened. Minutes passed. He must not have been impressed with the query, or maybe he didn't hear, I thought. But then came Hawking's famous, computer-generated voice, giving an insightful answer. During that pause, I learned later, his barely-noticeable hand motions had been moving his computer's