Predictions for the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics
Excitement is building — at least in science circles — for the upcoming announcements of the 2014 Nobel Prizes, along with the inevitable speculation about who might be among this year’s winners.
Asteroid Families Traced Back to the Collisions That Spawned Them
Space rocks tend to stick with their own kind
How Big Bang Gravitational Waves Could Revolutionize Physics
If the recent discovery of gravitational waves emanating from the early universe holds up under scrutiny, it will illuminate a connection between gravity and quantum mechanics and perhaps, in the process, verify the existence of other universes
Interstellar Environments May Breed Complex Organic Molecules
If biologically important organic molecules like amino acids could form in interstellar space, the implications would be enormous. On the Earth we find plenty of amino acid species inside certain types of meteorites, so at a minimum these compounds can form during the assembly of a proto-stellar, proto-planetary system (at least this one) and end [...]
Earth Has Water Older Than the Sun
Not all water in the solar system today could have formed in our solar system
Two New Arrivals Send Back Pictures Of Mars
The skies of Mars just got a little more crowded. On September 21st, 2014 NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) fired its engines for some 33 minutes in order to swing into a safe orbit.
Dark Matter Looks WIMPy
Data from the International Space Station-based Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment supports the idea that dark matter consists of the invisible particles called weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs. Clara Moskowitz reports
Betting Against Gravitational Waves: Q&A with Cosmologist Neil Turok
Failure to discover primordial spacetime ripples could open the way for a physicist’s alternative theory
Making Astronomy Accessible for the Visually Impaired
A couple of years ago, one of my thesis mentors sought visually impaired scientists working at a major space science agency in the United States.
Physics Titan Still Thinks String Theory Is "On the Right Track"
At a 1990 conference on cosmology, I asked attendees, who included folks like Stephen Hawking, Michael Turner, James Peebles, Alan Guth and Andrei Linde, to nominate the smartest living physicist.
Gravitational Wave Discovery Looks Doubtful in New Analysis
The latest data from the Planck satellite suggest the highly touted finding of spacetime ripples may have been mistaken
Hubble Telescope Time Preferentially Goes to Men
An internal study finds that female-led proposals to use the in-demand device are less likely to be selected