Astronomy

  • Vicky Kalogera is Thrilled by the Extraordinary
    A senior astrophysicist at the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished University Professor at Northwestern, Kalogera digs into why she keeps coming back to astrophysics, after more than three decades in astronomy. By: Katie Liu The universe chirped on a Monday. The first indication that astronomical history had been made came in the […]
  • THE MAGIC OF MAGNETS
    As a young girl I could spend hours playing with my parents’ refrigerator magnets. I used to pretend that one magnet was a magic wand that was causing the other to move back and forth and rotate through supernatural powers. Magnetism seemed …
  • ASTRONOMY FUGATO: TWO APPROACHES, ONE VAST FIELD OF DISCOVERY
    Last week, my mother called from the other side of the Pacific Ocean. After chatting about the weather in Chicago and what I had for dinner recently, she turned to my work. “Can you tell me again what you do for research? Do you observe the stars every night?” …
  • THE EXPERIMENT THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD
    Established pillars were under attack across the Western world. It was the late 1700s, and the United States had just declared independence. France was rapidly heading towards a bloody revolution. Industrialization was beginning to reshape society. And, amidst the chaos …
  • THERMOELECTRICS: HARVESTING ENERGY FROM HEAT
    The discovery of fire was a turning point in human history for many reasons. Fire offered portable warmth, light, protection, and a new way of preparing food. It was also one of mankind’s most successful attempts to harness energy. Other major efforts include …
  • BEYOND INFINITY: CANTOR’S INCREDIBLE PROOF
    If you were one of the millions of people to go see last summer’s blockbuster film “The Fault in Our Stars,” based off the novel of the same name by John Green, you might have been struck by a piece of mathematical wisdom uttered near the end of the …
  • THE TRUTH ABOUT TURBULENCE
    Most flights have at least a few minutes of bumpiness (in my experience, always as the food is served). Some of us think it’s interesting and perhaps fun – but most flyers, of course, do not. Either way, it’s nothing to get excited about. So, what exactly causes …
  • SKY FULL OF STARS
    There is a lot of news recently about new planets , and the number of them that might be able to harbor life , based on the number of stars and how many of them have planets in the ” habitable zone “. In reading about these values, I wondered a really simple question. …
  • ORIGIN OF LIFE: THE PANSPERMIA THEORY
    How life originated on earth is a question that people have pondered for ages. Theories abound, from those based on religious doctrine, to the purely scientific, to others that border on science fiction. One possibility that hovers on this border is the panspermia …
  • EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF RELATIVITY: IMPLICATIONS BEYOND SCIENCE?
    In 1905, Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity, and his general theory of relativity was made public in 1915. For these accomplishments, he is often heralded as the most influential thinker of the 20th century and possibly in modern …
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