Explaining Science
521 FOLLOWERS
I have a PhD in astronomy from the University of Manchester in the North West of England. Explaining Science contains articles on astronomy, space, and space travel - written at a level which is easily accessible to the non-scientist but without being dumbed down. Check the posts now!
Explaining Science
4d ago
In this post I’ll talk about curvature, what terms such as flat, positive and negative curvature mean and how this applies to the Universe. I won’t use complex mathematical definitions here, but intuitively curvature is a measure of how much a two-dimensional surface deviates from being flat. This concept can be extended to any number ..read more
Explaining Science
2w ago
I was disturbed to read the recent UN report pointing out that the government plans and projections from the major fossil fuel producers would lead to an increase in global coal production until 2030, and in global oil and gas production until at least 2050. This conflicts with government commitments under the Paris Agreement, and ..read more
Explaining Science
3w ago
On 30 November 2023 the 28th United Nations Climate Change conference (COP 28) will open at Expo City, Dubai My somewhat pessimistic view is that our chances of significantly reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere over the next 10-15 years or so don’t look particularly promising - mainly because there is the competing objective ..read more
Explaining Science
3M ago
In 2023 September 23 is the date of the September equinox and is also the first day of autumn (or the first day of spring if you're one of my readers in the Southern Hemisphere). In this post I’ll talk about the equinoxes and discus the commonly held, but incorrect, view that they are the ..read more
Explaining Science
5M ago
In my last post I remarked on the surprising similarity between conditions in the very early Universe, just after the Big Bang, and the far future of the Universe. In this post I’ll give an overview of Roger Penrose’s model of the Universe in which it passes endlessly through a possibly infinite number of cycles ..read more
Explaining Science
7M ago
In this post I’ll talk about the far future of the Universe and also how there is a certain similarity with the very early Universe - one of the reasons which led Roger Penrose to propose his Cyclical model of the Universe. Before we do this, it is worth having a very brief summary about ..read more
Explaining Science
8M ago
The night of 22/23 April 2023 will be the peak of the Lyrids, one of the most famous prolific meteor showers. Meteors (also known as shooting stars) are bright streaks of light caused by small lumps of rock or metal called meteoroids hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at very high speed. As they pass through the atmosphere they get ..read more
Explaining Science
8M ago
In a future post I'll talk in detail about conformal cyclical cosmology (CCC). This is a model of the Universe where it passes endlessly through a possibly infinite number of cycles (or aeons) each of which starts with a big bang and ends with a rapidly expanding empty universe. This fascinating idea was proposed in ..read more
Explaining Science
9M ago
In 2023 March 20 is the date of the March equinox and is also the first day of spring (or the first day of autumn if you're one of my readers in the Southern Hemisphere). In this post I’ll talk about the equinoxes and discuss the commonly held, but not quite correct, view, that they ..read more
Explaining Science
11M ago
Happy New Year to my readers and followers and I hope you have successful 2023. Although for most us the Christmas and New year festivities are over, for followers of the Orthodox form of Christianity, Christmas is yet to come, as they don't celebrate their Christmas until January 7 The reasons for celebrating Christmas 13 ..read more