One place I’ve always wanted to visit is Antarctica. It’s a continent seemingly designed for science geeks and natural-history buffs. Here’s a sampling of scientists now scattered across the bleak landscape: Cosmologists tweak the 10-meter South Pole Telescope , just completed last February; geologists...

Yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a nice summary of efforts by the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee to detect gravitational waves. The article focuses on NEMO , the $1.8 million, 1,560 CPU, Beowulf-class computing cluster built and operated by the school’s gravitational-wave group. (Ah, I...

Best known to astronomical trivia buffs as the man who coined the term “black hole,” University of Texas physicist John A. Wheeler died this morning at the age of 96. Wheeler “was legendary for his way with words, coining such terms as wormholes, quantum foam, black holes, and the wave function of the...

For those of you physics and cosmology enthusiasts who are into learning through alternative methods (or you’re just someone who likes some clever music and lyrics), you’ve got to check out the Large Hadron Rap video on YouTube. Of course, that’s if you aren’t one of the more than 1.5 million people...

Yesterday I spent a bit of time reading through the scientific paper regarding the flow of galaxy clusters pulled by possible dark matter beyond the universe’s horizon. I don’t know what it is about cosmology, but I find it fascinating. It’s weird stuff, completely crazy ideas, and very difficult to...

Are you good with statistics and interested in cosmology? Well, astronomers have issued a challenge to aid in the understanding of dark matter and dark energy — the mysterious stuff that makes up roughly 95 percent of our universe. Thirty-eight astronomers from 19 international institutions are issuing...