Cosmology

The director of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics talks about the news this week of indirect evidence for gravitational waves and his work to obtain direct evidence

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the evidence that we are currently within a period of mass extinction, the kind of event that will show up in the fossil record a few million years from now as a clear discontinuity, a radical change in the diversity of life on the planet.

Lead discoverer John Kovac describes his work at the BICEP2 radio telescope and how his career took him there

The shock waves are still reverberating from BICEP2's bombshell announcement that they've discovered the holy grail of cosmology: the telltale signature of gravitational waves from inflation.

A curved signature in the cosmic microwave background light provides proof of inflation and spacetime ripples
 

I am very excited to announce the next SciAm/Read Science! collaboration. My cohost, Jeff, and I will feature two guests who are well known independently for their work in science communication, but together make a formidable power couple (of sorts)!

NOTE: Jen-Luc Piquant is delighted to feature a guest post today by fellow science writer Amanda Gefter, author of the wonderful new book, Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn: A Father, a Daughter, the Meaning of Nothing, and the Beginning of Everything I'm sure every freshly published author struggles with the ungainly demands of self-promotion.

In recent days I’ve had some interesting conversations. There’s a giddiness going around, related to an outpouring of science love – the kind you get from President Obama introducing TV science shows, the kind that has wonderful visuals, but is, well, a wee bit simplistic (a sin that none of us could ever, ever be [...]

Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist at Arizona State University, answers an age-old question.

Tyson hopes that the updated Cosmos can play a small part in improving the severe lack of scientific literacy among many adults today

So much has changed in space since Carl Sagan’s Cosmos TV series first aired in 1980. We discovered dark energy (but still have no clue what it is).

The half-the-speed-of-light spin of a giant black hole suggests it grew by digesting another black hole in a galaxy merger. Clara Moskowitz reports