What makes time so hard to understand? Why is it so different from the spatial dimensions? Is time in any way connected to that most difficult of concepts, entropy?
Nov 6th: Could We Blow Up a Star?
How much energy is needed to blow up the sun? How is this connected to the idea of binding energy? Where is all the energy in the universe?
Oct 16th: Why Are Brown Dwarf Stars So Weird?
What do brown dwarfs teach us about stars? What do they teach us about planets? What keeps them warm, and how long do they live?
Oct 2nd: What makes all the light?
Sep 28th: Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence
Sep 18th: Is the Drake Equation useful?
What does the Drake Equation teach us about extraterrestrial civilizations? What does it NOT teach us? Is it even science?
Sep 4th: How Do Magnets Work?
What’s the connection between motion and magnetism? How can something like a black hole have a magnetic field?
Aug 21st: Why Do We Need Cosmic Inflation?
What was going in the very early universe? How does inflation provide the seeds of larger structures?
Aug 7th: Why do we need cosmic inflation? (Part 1)
What are some weaknesses with the standard Big Bang model? What are the horizon and flatness problems? How does accelerated expansion solve these?
Jul 17th: How does dark energy accelerate the universe?
What is the cosmological constant? How is the expansion of the universe related to quantum fields? How does a vacuum energy produce accelerated expansion?