Science
Space
From the first galaxies that grew after the Big Bang, to black holes swallowing their neighbors, to stars and planets being born today in the Cosmic Cliffs, the James Webb Space Telescope has shown us our own cosmic history. See how it works and what has been found. It’s not what NASA expected.
When it comes to biomedical research, Earth’s gravity can be an obstacle, making it harder to program stem cells into viable organs, obscuring the crystalline structure of proteins, and interfering with cellular communication channels. The possibility of using space to advance science is no longer an exercise in imagination as biotech start-ups begin sending experiments in...
Legendary, award-winning artist David Byrne joins in conversation with astrophysicist Janna Levin, director of sciences at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. Byrne co-created an immersive science theater project opening in Denver in September. Theater of the Mind uses narrative to explore perception, memory, attention, and our sense of self, and incorporates the work of neuroscien...
Scientists recently made the monumental announcement of the first picture of a black hole at the center of the Milky Way. As surely as the Earth orbits the sun, we orbit that black hole — 26,000 light-years away and 4 million times the mass of the sun, yet less than 20 times the width. It has been a century of black-hole discoveries, including two Nobel prizes for black-ho...
NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars earlier this year, continuing decades of research and fascination with the Red Planet. What can we learn from the rocks and soil the rover is tasked with collecting — and why should we care? What fuels the need to explore? In this conversation, Perseverance Flight Director Diana Trujillo sits down with Marina Koren, who covers space...
Are we alone? Humans have always wanted to know where we come from, how we fit into the universe. As news unfolds about the Navy’s UFO sightings, and as Congress reviews the data, are we closer to answering the age-old question? Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute founder Jill Tarter says as we look up and look out, we must see ourselves from a cosmic...
Just 33 million miles away, and yet still so far. From Galileo to Carl Sagan, the quest for life on Mars has an extensive history that reflects not only our scientific ambitions but our deepest yearnings to find that we are not alone. In this conversation, planetary environments researcher Sarah Stewart Johnson talks about her own search for life on Mars, from working on N...
The past two years have been the hottest ever recorded on Earth. Hundreds of gigatonnes of ice have been lost in Greenland and Antarctica and levels of trapped greenhouse gas have never been so high, with carbon dioxide readings above 410 parts per million. Those vital signs tell a story of a planet in trouble, threatening sea-level rise with disastrous implications for th...
Do we owe our existence to a thin disk of matter in the plane of the Milky Way that caused a minor space perturbation that resulted in a major earthquake that in turn killed the dinosaurs? Renowned theoretical physicist and best-selling author Lisa Randall discusses her original research showing the surprising connections between the cosmos and life on Earth.
Ever since humans looked up at the night sky, we have searched for clues that connect the celestial and terrestrial. However, it was not until the birth of modern science—seeking explanations with empirical data—that we came to understand our cosmic habitat better. And although we now know much about the universe we inhabit, there are many unsolved conundrums regarding the...
Even a generation ago, fundamental existential questions may have appeared as forever inaccessible metaphysical questions. How did the universe begin? How will it end? Are we alone? Are there universes? Remarkably, in the past decade or two and in some cases in the past year or so, it has become clear that all of these are accessible at least in principle, to experimentati...
Headline news was made in 2016 when the detection of gravitational waves, caused by the collision of two black holes, was confirmed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). And earlier this month, another ripple was detected! The observed ripples in the fabric of space-time validate a key prediction in Albert Einstein's theory of general relativit...
What is the universe made of and why don't we know what it's made of? From the esoteric to the concrete.
Through a powerful narrative that’s sure to inspire wonder and awe, Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute, shares her research on newly discovered planets outside our solar system. Kaltenegger is joined by astronaut and recently retired NASA science chief John Grunsfeld, who famously helped repair the Hubble Telescope in orbit. He was in charge during monu...
Black holes are dark. That’s their essence. Being dark against a dark sky and a shadow against a bright sky are the defining features that earned them a name. A telescope has never found one unadorned. Bare black holes—those too solitary to tear down sufficient debris—in their obliterating darkness are practically impossible to observe, but not entirely impossible. Award-w...
Are we alone? It’s an age-old quandary, and no discussion of space would be complete without addressing the possibility of life beyond Earth. Science and technology have accelerated to the point that we’re only about ten to 20 years from being able to answer the question. What does that mean to us as humans? Join an astronaut and a theoretical physicist as they ponder the...
The fastest spacecraft ever launched, NASA’s New Horizons left Earth on January 19, 2006, headed for Pluto and the Kuiper Belt at 36,373 mph. Hurling three billion miles from Earth, New Horizons completed the first exploration of the Pluto system, culminating in last summer’s highly successful flyby inside the orbits of all five of Pluto’s moons. New Horizons Mission Leade...
We live in an interconnected world of volatility and disruption. Systems are linked in a web of dizzying and only partially visible complexity, and change in any one domain has a swift impact on many others. Join Andrew Zolli in a walking tour of emerging tools – such as next-generation satellite imagery, social media, and advanced analytics – that allow us to make sense o...
It’s a question that we have pondered for years: is life on earth really the only life that’s out there in the universe? Turns out there’s a good chance it’s not just us. With research indicating that other planets might be able to host life, how should we be thinking about interactions between extraterrestrial and Earth life? Planetary protection involves avoiding contami...
Physicist Brian Greene explains the Higgs boson particle, also known as the "God Particle," and why you should care about it. This energetic and delightful talk will make you wish your high school physics teacher taught like this. Greene says the feat of finding such a particle is akin to "trying to hear a tiny, delicate whisper over the massive thundering, deafening din o...