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Science

Essays and videos exploring physics, evolution, cosmology and other frontiers in science
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Physics

The abyss at the edge of human understanding – a voyage into a black hole

4 minutes

An image shows the earth horizon at night seen from space. The lights of a city glow beneath the vast starry night of space
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essay

Astronomy

Alien life is no joke

Not long ago the search for extraterrestrials was considered laughable nonsense. Today, it’s serious and scientific

Adam Frank

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video

Astronomy

The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t

34 minutes

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video

Astronomy

Seven years later, what can we make of our first confirmed interstellar visitor?

59 minutes

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Physics

Why the golden age of total solar eclipses is already behind us

5 minutes

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essay

Astronomy

Panspermia

It’s possible that frozen worlds with subterranean oceans are incubators of organic life. But then how did life get here?

Balazs Bradak

Silhouetted figures stand beside a car looking up at a starry night sky
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essay

Space exploration

Uncertain contact

The detection of alien life won’t be obvious. It’ll be partial and inconclusive: a perfect task for the scientific method

Jaime Green

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video

Space exploration

In the search for life, might alien ocean worlds be a better bet than Earth-like planets?

5 minutes

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essay

Space exploration

Cosmic vision

By showing us a new cosmos, the discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope will ripple through our moral universe

Claire Isabel Webb

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essay

Space exploration

There’s no planet B

The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. Here’s why

Arwen E Nicholson & Raphaëlle D Haywood

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video

History of science

Bat-people on the Moon – what a famed 1835 hoax reveals about misinformation today

8 minutes

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essay

Astronomy

Thriving on Mars

Dust storms, long distances and freezing temperatures make living on Mars magnificently challenging. How will we do it?

Simon Morden

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essay

History of science

Inventing heaven

For hundreds of years, Christians knew exactly where heaven was: above us and above the stars. Then came the new cosmologists

Stephen Case

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video

History of science

How one of history’s most beautiful books was used to find fate in the cosmos

6 minutes

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essay

Space exploration

Telescopes on the Moon

Our future in space relies on settling the Moon and using it as a base to probe the deepest questions in the cosmos

Joseph Silk

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video

Astronomy

Raw solar-storm footage is the punk-rock antidote to sleek James Webb imagery

6 minutes

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video

Astronomy

From zero to 5,000 – music and visuals express 30 years of exoplanet discoveries

1 minute

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video

Knowledge

A poet’s ode to the Hubble Telescope – and to her father, who helped to build it

2 minutes

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Cosmology

Revisiting ‘Powers of Ten’ – what we’ve learned about the Universe since 1977

7 minutes

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Physics

Models capture the world-warping physics of what happens when stars meet black holes

2 minutes

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essay

Cosmology

The search for alien tech

There’s a new plan to find extraterrestrial civilisations by the way they live. But if we can see them, can they see us?

Corey S Powell

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video

Astronomy

Jocelyn Bell discovered pulsars. The Nobel Prize went to her supervisor

16 minutes

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video

Astronomy

Meet the citizen scientist who changed how we see the Sun, and science itself

5 minutes

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essay

Space exploration

Riches in space

Asteroids could pay for so much space exploration. We just need to mine those valuable resources – and duck a direct hit

Martin Elvis