Ethan Siegel (@StartsWithABang) / X

Ethan Siegel

27.4K posts

Ethan Siegel

@StartsWithABang

"Some blogger who doesn’t even write a single paper in a decade." #Cosmology Science writer, astrophysicist, author, communicator. He/him or they/them.

Portland, OR

Joined April 2011

Pinned
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Oct 13, 2024
"Where can I buy Infinite Cosmos?" Yes!! Everywhere! Amazon: amzn.to/400384v Barnes & Noble: barnesandnoble.com/w/infinite-cos… Disney: books.disney.com/book/infinite-… Penguin/Random House: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/757535/i… Powell's city of books: powells.com/book/-97814262…
24K
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Aug 3, 2024
Unlike every other particle in the Standard Model, if you could make a neutrino at rest, its scattering cross-section would be 0. Once you send a moving particle at it, the relative velocity gives it a finite cross-section again.
7.7K
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Feb 18, 2021
GPS Only Exists Because Of Two People: Albert Einstein And Gladys West forbes.com/sites/startswi… Have you ever heard of Dr. Gladys West? She's still alive, she's in the Air Force Hall of Fame, and she's the reason we have GPS.
GPS Only Exists Because Of Two People: Albert Einstein And Gladys West
From forbes.com
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Aug 9, 2024
Could we build a collider bigger than Earth? #AskEthan The LHC, at 27 kilometers in circumference, is the biggest particle collider today. The FCC would be 80-100 km, or we could go around Earth's equator: 40,000 km long. Could we go even bigger?
Ask Ethan: Could we build a collider bigger than Earth?
From bigthink.com
8.6K
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Oct 1, 2020
This is pretty amazing. A unique form of time-based art from colored rice grains and a uniformly accelerated frame of reference.
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Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Jul 19, 2024
Does time exist, or is it an illusion? #AskEthan Time isn't absolute, it sure isn't universal, and there's a chance it may not even be fundamental. But it definitely exists, at least, according to all we know about physics.
Ask Ethan: Does time exist, or is it an illusion?
From bigthink.com
11K
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
May 27, 2021
HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT! Anyone remember Carl Sagan's original Cosmos, and his idea for an "Encyclopaedia Galactica" someday? I am so excited to announce that I'll be co-creating an "Encyclopaedia Cosmologica," stepping through the history of the Universe 100 million years at a time!
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Aug 6, 2024
Einstein’s big insight that explained Newton’s law of gravity Back in the 17th century, Newton put forth the law of universal gravitation: an inverse square force law. Only with Einstein, in the 20th century, did we learn why the law follows that form.
bigthink.com
Einstein's big insight that explained Newton's law of gravity
For centuries, Newton's inverse square law of gravity worked beautifully, but no one knew why. Here's how Einstein finally explained it.
15K
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Jun 6, 2023
In case you wanted to truly appreciate how much better JWST is than Hubble, there's the same region of sky from: the Hubble XDF (top) with 23 days of data, JWST's NIRCam imager with <1 day of data. Some objects are in the JWST data that can't be seen in Hubble's at all!
82K
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Jun 6, 2024
No, gain of function research did not cause COVID-19 The lab leak conspiracy theory somehow still persists. Don't fall for it; instead, learn about the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting a natural origin for SARS-CoV-2.
No, gain of function research did not cause COVID-19
From bigthink.com
105K
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Jul 30, 2024
Modern astrophysics answers Isaac Newton’s oldest question Over 300 years ago, Newton said, "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who sets the planets in motion." Today, astrophysics can, and it's a "what," not a "who."
Modern astrophysics answers Isaac Newton's oldest question
From bigthink.com
9.7K
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Jul 11, 2020
Yesterday, I wrote an published an article on "The science of wearing a mask" for my weekly #AskEthan column. At the end, I put in a link where people can submit their own questions. Since yesterday, I've now received 11 death threats over email. This should not be normal.
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Jun 13, 2024
After 13.8 billion years, why hasn’t the Big Bang faded away? The Big Bang: after 13.8 billion years, its leftover glow still hasn't faded away. Unlike every other light source in the Universe, there's a profound reason why it persists.
After 13.8 billion years, why hasn't the Big Bang faded away?
From bigthink.com
249K
Ethan Siegel
@StartsWithABang
Apr 9, 2021
Fun fact: if you were to drill deep into the Earth, it would only be dark for the first ~60 kilometers. Below that, it's so hot that the Earth itself starts glowing in visible light. First red, it would become a "cool white" ~5000K at the center: almost as "white" as the Sun.