Monster black hole mystery
June 1, 2017
The detection on Earth of gravitational waves for the first time on 14 September 2015 was an epoch-making moment in the history of science. But the merging black holes which generated the waves have thrown up a puzzle. They were far more massive than a …
Our insanely constrained Universe
March 21, 2017
The world is a consequence of quantum theory and relativity. In fact, a competent physicist who knew nothing about the world and was locked in a room with a blackboard and told only about the twin principles would be able to deduce the existence of our …
The hunt for Planet 9
November 29, 2016
Out in the darkness at the edge of the Solar System there may lurk an unknown planet. Not a tiny splinter of ice like Pluto but a monster as massive as ten Earths. It seems scarcely believable that such a behemoth could have been overlooked. But, in Ja …
Why is the Sun hot?
November 8, 2016
If the Sun were made of bananas, it would not make any difference. Well, not much difference! It is all to do with why the Sun is hot… Why is the Sun hot? (New Humanist Subscribe)
Where you live can kill you
November 7, 2016
“After German unification, the differences in life expectancy and health between East and West were systematically reduced. The question we face is: do we continue to tolerate millions of lives stunted and truncated by inequality or do we do something …
Mapping the Heavens
July 25, 2016
“Once upon a time, the Universe meant the Sun, the Earth and five naked-eye planets. By the start of the 20th century, it had been redefined to mean the Milky Way, a swirling disc of stars to which the Sun belongs. Today, it means the 100 billion or so …
The cosmic web
May 3, 2016
“Is the universe like a meatball stew or is it like Swiss cheese? It sounds like a ridiculous question. However, the answer reveals what was going on in the first split second of the Big Bang…” Review of the Cosmic Web (Click link to subscribe to The …
My dad
May 2, 2016
Today is the anniversary of the death of my biggest fan – my dad. Here is what I wrote about him in the my book, AFTERGLOW OF CREATION (Foreword)
The voice of space
April 15, 2016
“Imagine being deaf from birth and suddenly, overnight, being able to hear. For all of history we have been able to “see” the universe. On 14 September 2015, we were at last able to “hear” it. Physicists in the US picked up “gravitational waves” – ripp …
Sun scream
April 8, 2016
“Across the world, telegraph operators were electrocuted, and at low latitudes, a bloodred aurora borealis appeared, so bright it was possible to read a newspaper by it at midnight…” Review of 15 Million Degrees (Click link to subscribe to The Times …