Revised 18 December 2025 -original post published in 2024 In 2024, for the majority of the world’s Christians, March 31 was Easter Sunday, one of the most important dates in the calendar. Although Easter originated as the festival celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, it is also widely marked by non-Christians in the UK, particularly as… Continue reading Easter March 31 2024
Author: Steve Hurley
Hi I am Steve Hurley. Although I work in the IT industry. I studied for a PhD in astronomy in the 1980s. My real passion is explaining scientific concepts to a non-scientific audience. My blog (explainingscience.org) covers various scientific topics, but primarily astronomy. It is written in a style that it is easily understandable to the non scientist.
Publications and videos
For links to my books and videos please visit www.explainingscience.org
Seasonal Changes in an English Garden
This post is a departure from my usual topics of astronomy and more general science. In 2020, I took a series of photos of my back garden. This year was, for those of us in the UK - like many countries in the world, the year of the lockdowns due to the covid pandemic. A… Continue reading Seasonal Changes in an English Garden
Rising carbon dioxide levels
Like many of you, in December last year I followed with interest the news reports from COP28. As it concluded, there was much written in the media about whether the nations of the world would actually do what is needed to restrict the rise in average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Now… Continue reading Rising carbon dioxide levels
Correcting Scientific Misconceptions: The December Solstice
I am still surprised how many articles on otherwise reputable websites when writing about scientific topics are riddled with errors and have clearly been written by lazy journalists with no knowledge of the subject they’re talking about. One of the worst examples was an article on the December 2023 solstice which recently appeared on a… Continue reading Correcting Scientific Misconceptions: The December Solstice
December 22 2023 – the solstice
This year, the northern hemisphere winter solstice will fall on 22 December. On this date there are the fewest hours of daylight and, during the day, the Sun reaches its lowest elevation. The origin of the word solstice is from two Latin words: sol, which means Sun, and sistere, to stand still. At the time of the winter… Continue reading December 22 2023 – the solstice
Explaining Science 