To know how old a person is, you just ask them. To date fossils you usually compare them with other stuff around them whose age is known. What about the entire universe? You can’t compare it with anything, and it’s been around since literally the beginning of time. How did scientists date time itself?
Gravitational waves were the first big story on this blog. I like gravitational waves. So when when something about it makes appears on my radar, I listen.
Even if it means it could all be wrong.
A tale of gravity making things round, but in different ways. Continue reading Why galaxies are flat (and Earth isn’t)
Think about it: the idea that the Sun is essentially the same thing as any star doesn’t make any sense. I mean, just look at them, they could hardly be more different! So how the heck do you go about proving such an outrageous idea? Well, it’s been quite a long journey, that started from a number of guesses by ancient “scientists”. Granted, some of them turned out relatively correct, … Continue reading A star like any other?
Want to name an element on the periodic table? Piece of cake! Just follow this simple, step-by-step guide. The first thing you have to do is to discover an element. At the moment, the periodic table has no blank spots to be filled: all elements with 118 or fewer protons have been found already. Though luck. Moreover, since very crowded nuclei don’t stick together for … Continue reading How to discover an element
The Sun, the planets and the whole universe revolve around the Earth while hanging on crystal spheres. The velocity of a body is proportional to the force that pushed it. A rock falls to the ground because that’s its natural element. Those are only a few of the teachings of Aristotle that, forced on posterity for centuries, held back scientific progress. Whatever your branch of … Continue reading Aristotle is always wrong, but that’s alright
Nothing’s more naturally predictable than the progression of a day, right? The Sun comes up in the East, rises through the sky, then sets in the West. That’s part of the fascination of places where it isn’t quite so. However, one of the places with the craziest days is rather unaccessible: Mercury. It’s the closest planet to the Sun, so it feels the star’s gravitational … Continue reading Mercurial sunset
Light travels at about 299792458 meters per second. Why not more? or less? Why can’t it have more than one speed? To tell the truth, light does have more than one speed: the one we know, the one that nothing can surpass, is the speed of light in a vacuum. But if it goes through a material, light travels slower. More than that, light of … Continue reading Speed limits
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