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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 20m

When the chips were down, did you flatter the powerful or stick up for the marginalized?

Your answer matters more than ever.

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 57m

Dorothy Thompson would've said, "this one goes Nazi" after 15 seconds at a cocktail party with her.

When you line up behind the other ones, you tell on yourself.

Sally Jenkins @sallyjenx.bsky.social · 4h

Ratio me. Please. It's a badge of honor. If you don't like a link, go follow some chicken-heart who needs the approval of the thought-police. Caitlin Flanagan of @theatlantic.com is a tremendous writer and this piece is an excellent read. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Don’t Bet Against Bari Weiss

The new editor in chief of CBS News triumphs over her critics.

www.theatlantic.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 1d

Starts With A Bang podcast #122 – Galaxy evolution and JWST

How do galaxies grow up all across the Universe?

Looking both wide and deep, like COSMOS-Web has done, gives us unprecedented insights, and so does out guest: Dr. Olivia Cooper!
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro #podcast #SWAB

Starts With A Bang podcast #122 - Galaxy evolution and JWST

To learn how our Universe grew up, we have to look at large numbers of galaxies at all distances to find out. Good thing we have JWST!

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 2d

How many generations of stars came before the Sun?

#AskEthan

There are three stellar populations: Population I, for Sun-like stars, Population II, for metal-poor stars, and Population III, for the first stars.

Does that mean we're a 3rd generation star?
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro

Ask Ethan: How many generations of stars came before the Sun?

Our Sun only arose after 9.2 billion years of cosmic history: with many stars living and dying first. How many prior generations were there?

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 3d

400 years later, astronomers finally understand Saturn’s rings

Saturn's rings have been a mystery for a long time.

We now know they're under 200 million years old, and an idea from 2022 just might explain their origin, and a whole lot more.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#saturn #space #astro

400 years later, astronomers finally understand Saturn's rings

Since the time of Galileo, Saturn's rings have remained an unexplained mystery. A new idea may have finally solved the longstanding puzzle.

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 3d

How much do you wanna bet he's not talking about "single payer" or "nationalized healthcare," which would be the only two solutions that would actually be higher quality and lower cost?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Thune: "The president would like to overhaul Obamacare and give people health insurance that is higher quality and more affordable."

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 4d

Macroscopic quantum tunneling wins 2025’s Nobel Prize in physics

This year's Nobel Prize in physics was all about building the first sustainable macroscopic system to exhibit quantum behavior.

Here's the science behind the prize, and why it matters.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#physics #quantum

Macroscopic quantum tunneling wins 2025's Nobel Prize in physics

Quantum mechanics was first discovered on small, microscopic scales. 2025's Nobel Prize brings the quantum and large-scale worlds together.

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 5d

Keep in mind: a static character can, throughout the story, have previously unseen aspects about them revealed to us, but the key is that the character themself does not change.

Glad this helped!

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 5d

Shoutout to @stephenking.bsky.social for an astute understanding of probability and how to answer the question of "If I'm the only one I know of, I might be alone; what will it take to convince me I'm not alone?"

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 5d

What you want are static characters.

Whether they're likeable or relatable varies.

"They are what they are and they do what they do" even as circumstances around them change, and they can end in triumph or tragedy.

Hemingway's "old man" in the old man and the sea.
Indiana Jones.
Sherlock Holmes.

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 5d

Today is the day!

The Grand Cosmic Story, my newest book (with Jon Lomberg, Mark Garlick, and Will Lidwell), from National Geographic, is released!

Get the history of the whole Universe, one page and 100 Myr at a time, today!
amzn.to/46GsS9d

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/789623...
#space #book

An inside look at four individual page spreads from the book The Grand Cosmic Story, featuring artwork, page titles, intricate text, and statistics about the Universe.

Cover image and a look at the introduction inside to the book The Grand Cosmic Story, telling our cosmic history 1 page and 100 million years at a time.

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 5d

The search for alien life must heed this lesson from Stephen King

In Stephen King's "The Stand," survivors of the Captain Trips superflu are rare, and finding a second survivor doesn't always occur.

Here's what that lesson means for seeking alien life.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro

The search for alien life must heed this lesson from Stephen King

In 2025, Earth remains the only planet where life is known to exist. Without a second example, "The Stand" has a vital lesson to teach us.

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 6d

COSMOS-Web unveils JWST’s newest gravitational lenses

Within JWST's largest-area survey so far, the COSMOS-Web field, there are over 100 newly imaged gravitational lenses.

Here are the sights, and surprises, lying within.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #jwst #astro

COSMOS-Web unveils JWST's newest gravitational lenses

By deeply imaging a large volume of space, COSMOS-Web provides JWST's widest cosmic views. Its gravitational lenses reveal a big surprise.

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 9d

How and when will the Universe die?

#AskEthan

Ever since the discovery of dark energy, astronomers have been secure in predicting the heat death of our Universe.

But if dark energy is changing, as DESI data suggests, are all bets off?
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #cosmology #astro

Ask Ethan: How and when will the Universe die?

As the Universe ages, it continues to gravitate, form stars, and expand. And yet, all this will someday end. Do we finally understand how?

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 10d

You can learn more about journalism, ethics, and the world of reporting by reading Karen Attiah than you can by reading everything else by everyone working at the Washington Post today.

Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 10d

I wrote this piece about 7th anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi's murder.

On the costs of speaking the truth in today's world.

And how Jamal's memory still stalks Saudi Arabia--- and the Washington Post.

open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post, and the Cost of Speaking Out

As Saudi Arabia hosts comedians and courts gamers, the silenced voice of Jamal Khashoggi still echoes.

open.substack.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 10d

What do distant observers see when they look at Earth?

If a distant observer takes a look back at Earth, what would they see?

They'd see a more primitive version of our planet, of course, and beyond a certain distance, no Earth at all.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro #Earth

What do distant observers see when they look at Earth?

From here on Earth, looking farther away in space means looking farther back in time. So what are distant Earth-watchers seeing right now?

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 11d

RIP to the one and only Jane Goodall, who has finally embarked on what she promised just a short while ago would be her "next great adventure" here: www.youtube.com/shorts/XeXNK...

Jane Goodall on death, her next great adventure #shorts

YouTube video by The Well

www.youtube.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 11d

Thousands of NASA employees to bid farewell to the NASA they knew

Yes, NASA science is being destroyed, and the NASA we know is actively in the process of being gutted.

Here are the receipts.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #astro #nasa #usa

Thousands of NASA employees to bid farewell to the NASA they knew

As October begins, thousands of longtime NASA employees are leaving the agency. 4000+ will exit by January 9, 2026, changing NASA forever.

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 12d

The “atom” lost its original meaning, and that’s good for science

First proposed more than 2400 years ago, the idea of the "atom" was an uncuttable, indivisible building block to all reality.

So why do we still call our composite structures atoms, then?
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#physics #atom

The "atom" lost its original meaning, and that's good for science

Invented over 2000 years ago by Democritus, the word atom literally means uncuttable. Revived in 1803, today's "atoms" can indeed be split.

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 12d

So happy that my undergrad nerd colleagues and my grad school nerd colleagues are finding each other!

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 12d

Want to make a game together, lol?

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 13d

The 5 biggest mysteries about the origin of our Universe

We know more than ever before about the beginning stages of our Universe's history.

But five huge puzzles, from the first stars to the origin of matter to the nature of inflation, still remain.
bigthink.com/starts-with-...
#space #bigbang

The 5 biggest mysteries about the origin of our Universe

From the Big Bang to a prior period of cosmic inflation, our cosmic origins are clearer than ever. Yet these 5 big mysteries still remain.

bigthink.com

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 14d

It's really too bad. Masks are supposed to be about public health and protecting one another.

These days, you have to protect yourself and plan for yourself, alone, almost everywhere you go.

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Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 14d

(In the USA. There are plenty in Japan!)

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Reposted by Ethan Siegel

Phil Plait @philplait.bsky.social · 16d

Mark is one of my favorite illustrators, and I use (and link to) his work in my newsletter often. Ethan is also a great writer, so I expect this book will be wonderful.

Ethan Siegel @startswithabang.bsky.social · 16d

As the author of the book that @markgarlick.com and Jon Lomberg co-illustrated, the opportunity to get a free, frameable art masterwork along with the extraordinary book is a bonus that will catch your eye, day after day, and make you ponder both the remarkable knowns and unknowns of existence.

⭐ ᗰᗩᖇᛕ ᗩ. ǤᗩᖇᒪIᑕᛕ ⭐ @markgarlick.com · 16d

Coming in 2 weeks is this rebooting of our successful Kickstarter book, Encyclopaedia Cosmologica. If you missed it, here's another chance. Written by @startswithabang.bsky.social and co-illustrated by me.

Order below and get a free art print from the book.

lnkd.in/eRjmMPQH

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