esiegel

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Ethan Siegel

Ethan was born in New York City as the son of a Jewish postal worker. He did his undergrad at Northwestern, taught public school in Houston, Texas and Los Angeles, California, before moving to Florida, where he got his PhD in theoretical astrophysics at the University of Florida. After that, he moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he taught at the University of Wisconsin, ate too much cheese, and also met his life partner, Jamie. After working in astrophysics research at the University of Arizona and starting the world-renowned science blog, Starts With A Bang, he moved from the hellish desert to rain-soaked Portland in 2008. Since then, he's been a professor at the University of Portland and Lewis & Clark College, grown a nationally renowned beard and mustache, got invited to join a circus and probably drank more beer than a healthy person should. He currently works as the head curator at Trapit, and can't wait to tell you a little bit more about the Universe.

Posts by this author

We're Way Below Average! Astronomers Say Milky Way Resides In A Great Cosmic Void (Synopsis)
June 7, 2017
“No matter what technique you use, you should get the same value for the expansion rate of the universe today.” -Ben Hoscheit When you think of the Universe on the largest scales, you likely think of galaxies grouped and clustered together in huge, massive collections, separated by enormous…
How much CO2 does a single volcano emit? (Synopsis)
June 5, 2017
"One volcano puts out more toxic gases - one volcano - than man makes in a whole year. And when you look at this 'climate change,' and when you look at the regular climate change that we all have in the world, we have warm and we have cooling spells." -John Raese Every year, dozens of volcanoes…
The Scientific Story Of How Each Element Was Made (Synopsis)
June 4, 2017
“It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign of order in nature and to find the causes governing this order. And this refers in equal measure to the relations of man - social and political - and to the entire universe as a whole.” -Dmitri Mendeleev When the Big Bang…
Comments of the Week #163: from the edge of the Universe to the Milky Way's demise
June 4, 2017
“Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.” -Marquis de Lafayette There's so much science to talk about in any given week here at Starts With A Bang! It's sometimes hard to choose, but one particular topic stole the show this past week: black holes. Sure, we took on other things, too…
Ask Ethan: How many Black Holes are there in the Universe? (Synopsis)
June 3, 2017
"Black holes are the seductive dragons of the universe, outwardly quiescent yet violent at the heart, uncanny, hostile, primeval, emitting a negative radiance that draws all toward them, gobbling up all who come too close…these strange galactic monsters, for whom creation is destruction, death life…
What will the death of the Milky Way look like? (Synopsis)
June 2, 2017
“Unless one says goodbye to what one loves, and unless one travels to completely new territories, one can expect merely a long wearing away of oneself and an eventual extinction.” -Jean Dubuffet In the far future, all the galaxies within our Local Group will merge together, with enough gas and…
Break The Standard Model? An Ultra-Rare Decay Threatens To Do What The LHC Can't (Synopsis)
June 1, 2017
"There are several categories of scientists in the world; those of second or third rank do their best but never get very far. Then there is the first rank, those who make important discoveries, fundamental to scientific progress. But then there are the geniuses, like Galilei and Newton. Majorana…
Nothing Escapes From A Black Hole, And Now Astronomers Have Proof (Synopsis)
May 31, 2017
"Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see." -Sam Neill, Event Horizon Are event horizons real? With data taken from around a dozen observatories earlier this year, simultaneously, the Event Horizon Telescope is poised to put together the first-ever direct image of the black hole at the center…
Is there really a cosmological constant? Or is dark energy changing with time? (Synopsis)
May 30, 2017
"If you're puzzled by what dark energy is, you're in good company." -Saul Perlmutter We normally assume that the fundamental constants of the Universe are actually constant, but they don’t have to be that way. They could vary in space, in time, or with the energy density of the Universe, in…
Surprise! The Universe Has A Third Way To Form Black Holes (Synopsis)
May 29, 2017
"N6946-BH1 is the only likely failed supernova that we found in the first seven years of our survey. During this period, six normal supernovae have occurred within the galaxies we've been monitoring, suggesting that 10 to 30 percent of massive stars die as failed supernovae." -Scott Adams Everyone…
Comments of the Week #162: from singularity evaporation to the loss of Earth's helium
May 28, 2017
“The ability to listen and learn is key to mastering the art of communication. If you don't use your verbal skills and networking, it will disappear rapidly.” -Rick Pitino It’s been a week full of amazing and controversial stories about the Universe here at Starts With A Bang! Did you catch the…
Ask Ethan: What Does The Edge Of The Universe Look Like? (Synopsis)
May 27, 2017
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." -Hunter S. Thompson When we look at the nearby Universe, it looks a lot like we, ourselves, appear. Nearby galaxies are similar in structure to our own; the stars…
The World Is Wasting Our Irreplaceable Helium, And Nobody Cares (Synopsis)
May 26, 2017
“Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain, For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain. America, America, man sheds his waste on thee, And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.” -George Carlin When you think of helium, you very likely think of balloons…
Trump's NASA Budget Eliminates Education Office, Plunging America Into The Dark (Synopsis)
May 25, 2017
"First Rate People hire first rate people. Second rate people hire third rate people." -Hermann Weyl So, here we are, encountering one another on the internet. There’s a really good chance that this is because you have some interest in space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, or some related area.…
Science Busts The Biggest Myth Ever About Why Bridges Collapse (Synopsis)
May 24, 2017
"At least six lamp posts were snapped off while I watched. A few minutes later, I saw a side girder bulge out. But, though the bridge was bucking up at an angle of 45 degrees, I thought she would be able to fight it out. But, that wasn't to be." -Bert Farquharson If you’ve only ever seen one bridge…
Isaac Newton vs. Las Vegas: How Physicists Used Science To Beat The Odds At Roulette (Synopsis)
May 23, 2017
"I don't always bet the same way I talk. Good advice is one thing, but smart gambling is quite another." -Hunter S. Thompson Did you know the world’s first wearable computer was built all the way back in the 1960s, was worn on your feet... and was used to help gamblers cheat at roulette? Physicists…
It's Dimming! Astronomers jump at opportunity to solve the mystery of Tabby's Star (Synopsis)
May 22, 2017
"As far as I can tell, every telescope that can look at it right now is looking at it right now." -Matt Muterspaugh Earlier this decade, the Kepler mission became the most successful planet-finding endeavor of all time, turning up thousands of new worlds by measuring the transit data of some 150,…
Comments of the Week #161: From the Big Crunch to cracking the Standard Model
May 21, 2017
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.” -Theodore Roosevelt It's been an incredible week here at Starts With A Bang! We've covered everything from the night sky's newest supernova to the possible fates of the Universe to what…
Ask Ethan: What happens when a black hole's singularity evaporates? (Synopsis)
May 20, 2017
"My discovery that black holes emit radiation raised serious problems of consistency with the rest of physics. I have now resolved these problems, but the answer turned out to be not what I expected." -Stephen Hawking One of the most puzzling things about Black Holes is that if you wait around long…
Nuclear Physics Might Hold The Key To Cracking Open The Standard Model (Synopsis)
May 19, 2017
“It was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you.” -Ernest Rutherford Nuclear physics has, for decades now, been regarded less as a window into…
NASA's idea for a space station in lunar orbit takes humanity nowhere (Synopsis)
May 18, 2017
“We had this whole big beautiful place for discovery, and all we could think to do with it was wipe out everything that made it worth discovering.” -Buzz Aldrin It’s been more than 40 years since humans last set foot on the Moon. The final space shuttle flight occurred six years ago already, and…
Closest Supernova In Years Brings Cosmic Fireworks To Earth's Skies (Synopsis)
May 17, 2017
"When a massive star explodes at the end of its life, the explosion dispenses different elements-helium, carbon, oxygen, iron, nickel-across the universe, scattering stardust. That stardust now makes up the planets, including ours." -Michelle Cuevas Every once in a while, a new light appears…
The Odds Of Your Unlikely Existence Were Not Infinitely Small (Synopsis)
May 16, 2017
"Logic takes care of itself; all we have to do is to look and see how it does it." -Ludwig Wittgenstein There are a great many events that occurred to give rise to the world, the Universe, and you. Everything from the Big Bang to the existence of the laws of physics to the cosmic history that…
After 50 Years Of Missions, We're Finally Ready To Know: Is There Life On Mars? (Synopsis)
May 15, 2017
"They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially 'colonized' it. So technically, I colonized Mars. In your face, Neil Armstrong!" -Andy Weir In the early 1960s, humanity began launching spacecraft to Mars, hoping to find out what the red planet was truly like. While early images…
Comments of the Week #160: From the edge of the Universe to the first-ever nebula
May 14, 2017
“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.” -Marie Curie…
Ask Ethan: Can The Universe Still End In A Big Crunch? (Synopsis)
May 13, 2017
"It's everywhere, really. It's between the galaxies. It is in this room. We believe that everywhere that you have space, empty space, that you cannot avoid having some of this dark energy." -Adam Riess Have you heard about the accelerating Universe? What about dark energy, vacuum energy, or a…
Spectacular New Crab Nebula Images Close In On Its Final Secrets (Synopsis)
May 12, 2017
"The origin and evolution of life are connected in the most intimate way with the origin and evolution of the stars." -Carl Sagan The Crab Nebula is one of the most interesting and compelling objects in the entire night sky. In the year 1054, a supernova went off in the constellation of Taurus,…
What if cosmic inflation is wrong? (Synopsis)
May 11, 2017
“…an understanding of the infinite tree of universes seems to be needed in order to make statistical predictions about the properties of our own universe, which is assumed to be a typical “branch” on the tree.” -Alan Guth The Big Bang is commonly regarded as the start of it all, but that's only the…
5 Reasons Why The 21st Century Will Be The Best One Ever For Astrophysics
May 10, 2017
"When we have found how the nucleus of atoms is built up we shall have found the greatest secret of all — except life." -Ernest Rutherford What does the future of astrophysics look like? Have we already made all of the fundamental discoveries we’re going to make? Is the rest just categorization of…
The scientific truth about Planet Nine, so far (Synopsis)
May 9, 2017
“Finding out that something you have just discovered is considered all but impossible is one of the joys of science.” -Mike Brown In January of last year, astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown shocked the world by proposing that there was a world larger than Earth located some five-to-ten…