Tag: cosmic microwave background
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Weird discrepancy in cosmic measurements has cosmologists puzzled
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] The growing crisis in cosmology For The Week: How rapidly is the universe expanding? Since Edwin Hubble first discovered in 1929 that galaxies are getting farther apart over time,…
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The world … er, the universe is flat!
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] What’s the Shape of the Universe? A New Study Is Sparking Debate For Curiosity: What is the shape of the universe? The universe is everything that we can observe,…
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BICEP3: Revenge of the telescope
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Dusting for the fingerprint of inflation with BICEP3 A new experiment at the South Pole picks up where BICEP2 left off For Symmetry Magazine: When researchers with the BICEP2…
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Traces of particles from the first second after the Big Bang
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Signs of neutrinos from the dawn of time, less than a second after the Big Bang First unambiguous observation of the cosmic neutrino background From Ars Technica: The first…
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Looking to the heavens for neutrino masses
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Looking to the heavens for neutrino masses From Symmetry Magazine: Neutrinos may be the lightest of all the particles with mass, weighing in at a tiny fraction of the…
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New data offer a peek into the Universe’s first instants
Today was an exciting and stimulating day: the BICEP2 collaboration announced the first measurement of the cosmic microwave background that might tell us whether or not inflation happened. Inflation is the hypothetical rapid expansion of the Universe during its first instants, which explains a lot about why the cosmos appears the way it does. However,…
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The mystery of the lopsided Universe
On the largest scales — far bigger than any galaxy or galaxy cluster — the Universe is remarkably smooth and regular. Tiny irregularities in the early cosmos are what gave rise to all the structures we see today, including us, but there’s another irregularity covering the whole sky. The Universe appears to be ever-so-slightly lopsided,…
Bowler Hat Science 