I’m off to see Mom

I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again … stay tuned.

Is the Universe Made of Math? Part 1: The Unreasonable Tool January 10, 2026
Imagine you walk into a parking lot full of cars. You have in your pocket one single key. It’s the key to your car. The same key you’ve always used, the same key you’ve always trusted, the same key that you always manage to realize that you’ve lost right when you’re rushing out the door.
The Milky Way’s Black Hole Is Quiet Now, But Its Recent Past Was Far More Active January 9, 2026
The supermassive black hole in the Milky Way's galactic center, Sagittarius A-star, is known for being quiet and dim. But that wasn't always the case. The powerful XRISM x-ray telescope shows that it flared brightly at least once in the very recent past.
How the Most Common Types of Planets Are Created January 9, 2026
A new study finds that hot super-Earths begin as large puffy worlds with low densities. Over time their atmospheres are stripped away to leave more dense planets orbiting close to their stars.
Does Free Will Exist? Part 4: An Emergent Universe January 9, 2026
But we’re not going for one thing or another, are we? We’re here to explore ideas – that’s most of the fun anyway. And there’s one more aspect of physics that takes part in the free will discussion, and that’s the concept of emergence.
To Keep Water Liquid, the Red Planet Needed to Freeze January 8, 2026
Mars has a curious past. Rovers have shown unequivocal evidence that liquid water existed on its surface, for probably at least 100 years. But climate models haven’t come up with how exactly that happened with what we currently understand about what the Martian climate was like back then. A new paper, published in the journal […]