CERN to lead particle physics throughout the 21st century The CERN Council has selected the Future Circular Collider as their next-generation plan for particle physics. Fundamental science still has a chance in the 21st century. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #physics #fundamental #science #hope

Ask Ethan: What do surveys of physicists actually reveal? A recent survey of physicists was conducted by the American Physical Society. We learned a lot about their arrogance and willingness to opine, but about nature? Not so much. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics #survey

Space wasn’t infinitely small when the hot Big Bang began There's a minimum size that space could've been "compressed into" at the start of the hot Big Bang. Not a singularity, not soccer ball sized, but human hamster-ball sized. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics #inflation

On May 27th, I'll be speaking over at ScienceKind about SETI, aliens, and the topic of, "What if we're alone?" As a bonus, if the talk fills up (and it probably will), I'll do an encore live performance on June 4th! Sign up here, www.sciencekind.com/t/sk-cutting..., and I'll see you there!

Why the tooth fairy is important for theoretical physics Theoretical physicists often explore wild, unusual ideas when confronting the mysteries of nature. You can even invoke the Tooth Fairy if you like, but only once. Here's why. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #science #astro #physics

Why “galactic archaeology” is not archaeology at all There's a science for studying the assembly, history, and evolution of our galaxy. Infrared astronomy has taught us so much, but calling it "galactic archaeology" is too much. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics #history

Less of the night sky is visible than ever before NASA's Black Marble project measures artificial lighting at night. From 2014-2022, things got 34% brighter. And now over 80% of humanity can't even see the Milky Way at night. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #nightsky #nasa

The first lesson you learn in grad school about scientific writing is to research and read. Who else had these (or similar) ideas? Who laid the foundation you're expanding on now? Who did the first work on this topic? Where has this come up in the past? Don't be a slopper like James Miller. Read.

Ask Ethan: Is the Universe the same age everywhere? Does our 13.8 billion year figure for the Universe's age apply to any observer anywhere as far as "now" goes? Several scientific effects say otherwise, but quantitatively, not by much. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics #time

Just received NSF's PR announcement hailing: A $1.5 billion investment in "non-traditional science arenas" called X-Labs (recognize the BS there?), With no mention of "science" anywhere in it (it's all about "quantum" technologies), While omitting the 50%+ budget cut proposed in the FY2027 budget.

What physics gets wrong about the idea of “fundamental” "Fundamental" in physics usually just means the smallest indivisible quanta plus the laws that govern them. But we wouldn't get far without something more: boundary/initial conditions. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #physics #quanta #astro

Cosmic beacon unveiled inside nearby active galaxy by JWST Just 45 million light-years away lies galaxy Messier 77. It has an active black hole, it's rapidly forming stars, it's bigger than the Milky Way, and JWST just viewed it. Wow! bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #jwst #astro

Fun fact: I wrote my first children's book, The Littlest Girl Goes Inside An Atom, entirely in the same meter that the Gilligan's Island theme song is written. (The "common" meter.) My second (upcoming) children's book, The Biggest Boy Becomes a Black Hole, will do the same! amzn.to/438GpDC

The discovery of an atmosphere on a tiny Kuiper belt world Pluto's atmosphere was discovered in 1988, during a stellar occultation. Only now are we discovering a second Kuiper belt object with an atmosphere, and wow, is it a surprise. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #NAOJ

A brief history of the cosmic distance record The cosmic distance record has grown, in just a few hundred years, from millions of light-years to over 30 billion light-years. Here's a look back at our history of ever-receding horizons. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics #telescope

Starts With A Bang podcast #129 – Triton and the outer solar system Neptune was discovered back in 1846, and its largest moon, Triton, was found just 17 days later. Little did we know we had found the largest object of Kuiper belt origin of all. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #podcast

Ask Ethan: How empty are the depths of space? We often talk about "the vacuum of space" as being a place where pressures and particle densities drop to zero. But outer space is never truly empty, even in the emptiest places. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics #cosmology

Why science has abandoned the existence of the aether There are many working in theoretical physics who keep trying to bring back the long-discredited idea of the aether. But physics doesn't need it at all. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #physics #aether #science #astro

A new experiment deepens the physics mystery over “big G” Last month, a NIST team published a 10-year study to measure "big G," the gravitational constant. It didn't settle the debate, but rather revealed what everyone should consider. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #physics #NIST #G

The science case for why Pluto should become a planet (again) The current IAU definition of planet is now 20 years old, and in that time, we've learned a whole lot more about moons and dwarf planets. Here's why they should be planets, too. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics

Supermassive black holes launch the most powerful cosmic jets All across the cosmos, charged particles accelerate and get collimated into jets. And the longest, most powerful ones all originate from supermassive black holes. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics #Xray

Ask Ethan: How can ultra-distant galaxies move so fast? If you translate redshift into a special relativity velocity, you'll find the most distant galaxy, MoM-z14, speeds away from us at 99.2% the speed of light. How is that possible? bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #JWST #relativity

The science case for why Pluto still isn’t a planet Sure, we lived in a simpler time when we had 9 planets, including Pluto. But we've learned a whole lot since 1929, and can't in good conscience ignore it to suit our comforts. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #planet #space #astro #pluto

Just days ago, I wrote about why it's hard for astronomers to celebrate Artemis II while foundational science, like NASA and the NSF, are being eviscerated. But then yesterday, this Nature piece came out: www.nature.com/articles/d41... It's not just NASA and NSF, folks. bsky.app/profile/star...

To anyone who needs to hear it. The best advice I ever got from my advisor about getting a job after graduation was when he said, "but that was what worked for me, and that was a long time ago." Do not assume that your path to success will look like the paths of those who succeeded before you.

Dark matter in the Bullet Cluster celebrates 20 years It was our first empirical proof of dark matter, using the natural lab of the Universe. Contrarians argue against it, but the evidence speaks louder than any ideologically-driven voice. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics

The challenge of celebrating Artemis II as NASA cuts loom With Artemis II, we sent humans back to the Moon for the first time in 54 years, breaking our the all-time distance record from Earth. But few are celebrating amid deep NASA and NSF cuts. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #nasa

The particles in the early Universe painted a different picture The Standard Model is well-understood: quarks, leptons, gluons, the photon, the W-and-Z bosons, plus the Higgs boson. But many things looked very different early on. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #physics #particle #particles #EWSB

Ask Ethan: What’s the biggest misconception in astronomy? Sure, misconceptions abound in astronomy: about dark matter, type Ia supernovae, the Big Bang, and much more. But the biggest misconception of all is far more basic: it's how stars work at all. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro

To those of you who ever served or had relatives serve in the military, you'll know that Stars & Stripes is one of the USA's longest-running independent newspapers. Its ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, was just fired. After April 28th, it will be controlled by the DoD. www.stripes.com/opinion/2026...

The idea of “theories of everything” may be fundamentally wrong All attempts at "unification" or "theories of everything" necessarily add new particles and new ingredients to the theory. Is this a fundamentally flawed approach? bigthink.com/starts-with-... #physics #fundamental #theoretical

Only antimatter provides the energy we need for interstellar travel This Earth Day, some dream of saving the Earth, while others dream of leaving it. Here's why using antimatter as fuel is humanity's best bet for interstellar travel. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #earth #antimatter

Dark matter passes a new cosmic test, while MOND fails A new cosmic test has finally, with CMB and large-scale structure data, become realistic: using the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect to test dark matter vs. MOND. Guess who wins? bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #darkmatter #MOND

Star birth doesn’t come from ignition, but from equilibrium In astronomy, "a star is born" happens when nuclear fusion ignites in its core, according to the internet. That's not the scientific standard, though: equilibrium is. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #stars #astronomy

Ask Ethan: How long does it take planets to form? Just 35 years ago, we knew so little about how planets formed, or how long the process took. Here in 2026, we now have a complete end-to-end story: validated by actual data. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #planets

Long ago, people were telling me I should learn how to speed read. Why? When I read, I choose the pace I go at. I could go faster, but then my brain wouldn't marinate in the thoughts I get to have while I read at the pace that's right for me. The more thinking you outsource, the less you gain.

Can you explain the strong nuclear force without colors? The idea of a "color charge" confuses a lot of people, and the analogy certainly has its flaws. Here's how to understand the strong force without colors, and without group theory, too. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #physics #proton #quark

This viral image of Saturn isn’t real; it’s AI slop A new image of "Saturn's North Pole" has gone viral. Too bad it's an AI fake. Here's what the real things look like, and how you can tell for yourself. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #Saturn #notCassini

Everything in the Universe changes by adding enough mass What sets the dividing line between rocky planets, gas giants, brown dwarfs, and stars of different colors and lifetimes? One parameter alone, mass, explains almost all of it. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #physics #astro #space

I went on a podcast. The host was excited for AI, data centers in space, and satellite infrastructure. I was not necessarily the guest he wanted. But I just might have been the guest he needed. What do you think? www.youtube.com/watch?v=80iK...

“One bad measurement” ruled out as Hubble tension explanation When thinking about the Hubble tension, many fault "one bad measurement," somewhere, as the ultimate culprit. Astronomers just showed this cannot be the case. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics #cosmology

You will never have a productive conversation with grifting liars. Unless 100% of the time, a moderator is calling them out and fact-checking them on their lies and grift, this is nothing but spreading propaganda.

Starts With A Bang #128 – Planet formation and proto-protoplanets You've heard of planets, exoplanets, and protoplanets. Now, for the first time, we've discovered something more primitive than any of them: a proto-protoplanet. Here's what it means. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro

How did Artemis II break Apollo’s distance record? If you ask google how Artemis II broke Apollo 13's distance record, it'll lie and say "because the rocket was more powerful." But these three reasons, combined, are how it really happened. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #artemis

Cosmic inflation explains the Universe’s low entropy at birth The "past hypothesis" problem questions why, if entropy always increases, the hot Big Bang began with such a low amount of it. That's another puzzle solved by cosmic inflation. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #astro #physics #space

To alien eyes, Earth looks deceptively peaceful To someone looking at us from afar, all signals of whatever we've done recently on Earth will not yet have arrived. Lucky them. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #peace #earth #aliens

Astronomers just found the most pristine star of all-time The most pristine star of all-time has been found: J0715-7334, with just 0.005% of the heavy element content of the Sun. Here's what it teaches us about how stars grow up. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #astronomy #space #physics #cosmology

Something special is happening in space right now As Artemis II astronauts reach the Moon for the first time in 54 years, it gives humanity something we've been missing for decades: hope that we can become something great. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #artemis #NASA #astro

Ask Ethan: Do gravitational waves redshift like light does? Light redshifts as it travels through the expanding Universe, and is affected by a host of other phenomena. But not everything is the same for gravitational waves. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #cosmology