cosmology

Astrophysics / cosmology / Physics / etc.

Dark Energy, Numerical Relativity, and Astrophysics

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binary neutron star merger

So I did an interview for the “Tilting at the Universe” podcast. In it, I describe: the history of dark energy and the expanding universe, how the mystery of dark energy may be solved once we reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity, how the astrophysics of black holes and neutron stars may help us understand quantum gravity, and how my field of numerical relativity fits in to all of this. I think I did a pretty good job of explaining what excites me about the field. So check it out. The interview is here. In the interview, I mention

Physics / Science And Math

Book Review: Beyond the Galaxy

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Beyond the Galaxy

Earlier this year, I was asked to review Ethan Siegel’s, upcoming book Beyond the Galaxy, shown in figure 1. I got an advanced copy and dug in and I really loved what I found. With Ethan’s permission, I wanted to repost my review here so you can all read it. The Review The history of science is filled with ideas that were once compelling, but have since been ruled out by empirical evidence. Ethan Siegel’s Beyond the Galaxy understands this fundamental truth of science. With eloquence and clarity, Siegel tells us the story of the universe, from the (inferred)

cosmology / Physics / Science And Math

The CMB Axis of Evil and the Nature of Randomness

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axis of evil planck

This Halloween, Nature News released an article titled Zombie Physics: 6 Baffling Results that Just Won’t Die. It’s a fun article describing several mysteries in physics whose solution sits in a sort of limbo. For fun, I figured, I’d explain some of these mysteries, and give my opinion about possible solutions. And first, I’m going to discuss the CMB Axis of Evil, a strange pattern in the leftover radiation from the Big Bang. A Much-Too-Short Summary of Cosmic Inflation and the CMB About 13.8 billion years ago, the universe was extremely hot, so hot that matter couldn’t form at

Astrophysics / cosmology / Physics / etc.

The Universe Is an Inside-Out Star

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the CMB on our sky

No, not really. But as we’ll see, it’s a useful analogy. Today we’ll learn about sound waves in the sun and how, if we imagine that the universe is the sun but inside-out, these are the same as the sound waves that filled the early universe. DISCLAIMER: This is a pedagogical exercise only! I am not claiming the universe is ACTUALLY an inside-out star or that scientists think of it as one. Sound Waves in the Sun I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I say that the sun is a complicated beast. A nuclear furnace burning at tens

Astrophysics / Physics / Science And Math

Pope Francis says Evolution and the Big Bang are Compatible with Catholicism

jonah

You’ve probably heard, the news. Pope Francis has announced that Big Bang cosmology and evolutionary theory are compatible with Catholicism and “may even be required.” This is, of course, wonderful news. It’s evidence that science and religion are not necessarily incompatible and that people of faith can modify their beliefs based on the evidence around them. But it should have been this way all along. Indeed, it originally _was_ this way. One of the people who developed Big Bang cosmology, Monseigneur Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a catholic priest who believed that his studies of physics brought him

Condensed Matter / cosmology / Physics / etc.

BICEP2, Primordial Gravity Waves, and Cosmic Inflation

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“Like the microscopic strands of DNA that predetermine the identity of a macroscopic species and the unique properties of its members, the modern look and feel of the cosmos was writ in the fabric of its earliest moments, and carried relentlessly through time and space. We feel it when we look up. We feel it when we look down. We feel it when we look within.” ~Niel Degrasse Tyson There was some very big news today! If you haven’t already heard, the BICEP2 research group at Harvard has found evidence of ancient gravitational waves in the sky. A lot

cosmology / Physics / Relativity / etc.

Always Walk Away From An Explosion—The Story of the Big Bang

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Boom!

We were fortunate to be there a day or two before ‘the big bang’ and then we got the heck out of town. ~Scotty Moore A few weeks ago, +Matthew Villaneuva asked the following question on Google+: Does anybody else find the Big Bang (the scientific explanation on how the universe got created) weird? Actually, yes! Just a century ago, everyone believed that the universe was static—i.e., that it had always existed and that it would always continue to exist. Even Albert Einstein held this view. I previously explained why we know the universe is expanding, so I’m going

cosmology / Geometry / Mathematics / etc.

For There We Are Captured—The Geometry of Spacetime

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All about me there are angles— strange angles that have no counterparts on the earth. I am desperately afraid. ~Frank Belknap Long, The Hounds of Tindalos Whoever…proves his point and demonstrates the prime truth geometrically should be believed by all the world, for there we are captured. ~Albrecht Durer I was recently asked: What does it mean when we say spacetime is “curved” or “flat?” The answer lies in the interface between differential geometry and physics. This is the latest in many articles I’ve written on Einstein’s relativity, so you might want to check out my series on faster-than-light

cosmology / Physics / Science And Math

What Is Time? A Simple Explanation

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Mastery is achieved when “telling time” becomes “telling time what to do.” ~“Telling Time” This week I’m trying something a little different. I heard about a contest where the goal was to explain time in terms an eleven-year-old could understand. While I didn’t make the contest deadline, I thought I’d share my attempt with you all. What Is Time? What is time? Scientists often think of time as a direction you can travel in. Just as we can move up, down, left, or right in space, we can move in time. Something is wrong with this comparison, though. When