Science Dictionary

Have you ever really thought about the scale of the universe? A good starting point is the teaspoon.

If you took all of the matter in the universe and you pushed it all into one corner, how much space would it take up? I am trying to understand how much of the universe is 'empty.'

How does 24-karat gold relate to a 1-carat diamond in an engagement ring? It turns out there's a difference between these identically sounding measurements.

By Kathryn Whitbourne

A light-year is a way of measuring distance, which doesn't make much sense because "light-year" contains the word "year," which is normally a unit of time. So, how does a light-year measure distance?

By Valerie Stimac

Comets are remarkable pieces of our universe's past, and they tell us a great deal about how the universe was formed. Learn about the long but rewarding process of discovering and analyzing comets.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.

A black hole occurs when a massive star dies -- its enormous mass implodes and becomes so heavy that it bends space. So how do astronomers detect something that they can't see?

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.

What exactly are asteroids? And what was the NEAR Shoemaker mission about?

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. & Yara Simón

Polymer crystals are amazing in that they can absorb many times their size. In fact, one pound of these crystal flakes can hold up to 50 gallons of water. Find out what these polymer crystals are and why they are able to absorb so much water.

For decades, stargazing scientists have been facing their own darkness on the edge of town as they try to explain one of astronomy's greatest mysteries: dark matter. Have they been successful, or will the universe carry its secrets for a long time?

By William Harris & Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.

While routinely scanning the stars, NASA scientists came across something they didn't expect to see: a vast area of space empty of stars, planets and matter.

By Jacob Silverman

He starred with Superman, drove the getaway car at Pluto's demise and was voted sexiest astrophysicist by People magazine. Is there anything Neil deGrasse Tyson can't do?

By Laurie L. Dove

He is famous for a phrase he never said, for wearing turtlenecks and for hosting the original 'Cosmos' TV series. As enthusiastic about the stars as he was about marijuana, Carl Sagan led a very surprising life.

By Laurie L. Dove

Everyone knows that nothing travels faster than the speed of light, but how does the speed of dark compare? Read on to find out!

By Bambi Turner

If you have a theory that potato chips are making you fat (with the proof being your expanding waistline), you've just used two scientific terms in a very unscientific way.

By Beth Brindle

He built President Eisenhower an indoor golf-training machine, analyzed the Zapruder film and searched for an Egyptian pyramid's treasure chamber using cosmic rays. Aren't you dying to meet this wide-ranging scientist?

By Nicholas Gerbis

The man who had some theories about relativity was also an eccentric who gleefully eschewed socks, dodged German military service and spurned social conventions.

By Nicholas Gerbis

He was born exactly 300 years after Galileo died. He never won a Nobel Prize, although he was awarded a guest spot on "The Simpsons." What else do you know (or not know) about this acclaimed physicist?

By Jane McGrath

He ventured to the abyss of black holes, wagered on the information paradox and floated around in zero gravity. Meet the man, the legend, the super scientist: Stephen Hawking.

By Marianne Spoon

How cool would that be to stand amongst the company of fellow laureates like Mother Teresa or Albert Einstein? We have some ideas for scoring you one.

By Marianne Spoon

The world often seems chaotic and events appear to occur randomly, but what's the difference between chaos and randomness?

By Mitchell Newberry

Nobel prizes offer lots of prestige and big payouts. But how do you become eligible for one? And can you lobby for yourself?

By Dave Roos

Planck's constant, which made an appearance in the Netflix series "Stranger Things," is one of the most important differences between reality at the atomic and subatomic level and what we can see around us.

By Patrick J. Kiger & Austin Henderson

As much as we might like to think that our collective knowledge has unlocked most of the mysteries of the universe, we've really only got a hold on a tiny fraction of the knowledge required to fully understand it all-and it's a weak hold at best. But every once in a while a new theory [...] The post 12 Of The Most Mind-Blowing Scientific Theories Ever Conceived appeared first on Goliath.

By Wes Walcott

From astronauts to doctors to an archaeologist, we present eight scientists whose contributions to science, engineering and math were inseparable from their identities as Indigenous Americans.

By Dave Roos

Questions, theories and debates about quantum physics can get muddled because of a number of myths and misconceptions. Here are four of them.

By Alessandro Fedrizzi & Mehul Malik