Cosmology Goes Off the Reservation
May 17, 2014
If science were ever restricted to observation, experimental demonstration, and evidence, some cosmologists left that reservation far behind long ago. Being smart does not preclude going nutty.
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Has Cosmic Inflation Been Discovered?
March 17, 2014
Claims of a major breakthrough about the big bang are swirling in the news: is it inflation, or inflating the evidence?
Cosmologists Were Wrong About Galaxy Evolution
March 11, 2014
Fifteen years ago, no cosmologist would have predicted mature galaxies early on, but they keep getting found – earlier and earlier.
If the Big Bang Is the Answer, Why Are There So Many Questions?
February 25, 2014
Any scientific explanation that leads to more questions than answers should be considered suspect.
No Dark Matter Down Here
October 30, 2013
A mile deep in the earth, the most sensitive search to date for dark matter has turned up nothing.
Astronomy Grab Bag
December 29, 2012
For year's end, here's a clean-out of astronomy articles—from planetary science to cosmology—to motivate further inquiry.
Shining Light on Dark Energy
October 21, 2012
Fifteen years after cosmologists proposed the existence of dark energy, they have learned nothing about it. In “Cosmology: Out of the Darkness,” Matthew Chalmers discussed the current thinking of Brian Schmidt, who shared the Nobel prize in 2011 for discovering cosmic acceleration (actually, an inference based on light from supernovae; see 9/30/2012). “Fifteen years after […]
Supernova Dating and Classification Is Not Simple
September 30, 2012
Bang! goes a star. Watch how fast its contents move, and you know the date, right? Watch its light curve, and you know the type, right?
Astronomers Wrestle with "Endless Mysteries"
June 3, 2012
Some of the biggest questions in the universe remain completely baffling to astronomers, a leading journal admitted.
Dark Matter as an Escape
May 14, 2012
Employing exotic unobservable entities such as dark matter may be an escape from scientific rigor in more ways than one.