These are some of my cosmology posts
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Daylight Saving Time
As mentioned in my previous post, in the early hours of Sunday 27 October the clocks go back an hour throughout the European Union and daylight saving time comes to an end. Although many Europeans will welcome the extra hour in bed on the night of 26/27 October, I suspect that a lot of people…
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Jim Peebles winner of the Noble Prize 2019
I was interested to hear that Jim Peebles, at the age of 84, has won a half share of the 2019 Noble Prize for physics for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology. Jim Peebles (1935-) Image from Wikimedia commons In the early 1960s Peebles and his colleague Robert Dicke had predicted the existence of the microwave…
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Time and time zones
In this post I’ll talk about the measurement of time and the use of time zones throughout the world. This is particularly topical at this time of year. In the early hours of Sunday 27 October the clocks go back an hour throughout the EU as Europe switches to winter time. The natural day There…
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The September equinox
In 2019 September 23 is the date of the September equinox and is also the first day of autumn (or the first day of spring if you’re one of my readers in the Southern Hemisphere). In this post I’ll talk about the equinoxes and discus the commonly held view that they are the two days in…
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The Goldbach Conjecture
The Goldbach conjecture, posed in 1742, asserts that every even number greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers. Despite exhaustive verification for even numbers up to four quadrillion, no proof exists for all even integers. A million-dollar prize for a solution remains unclaimed.… Continue reading The Goldbach Conjecture →
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The Science Geek is now Explaining Science
When I started my Science Geek blog back in April 2014, I never expected it still to be up and running five years later. Over these five years its popularity has gradually increased, and I now have around 2,300 followers. However, after five years of blogging I feel now that it is time for…
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12-13 August 2019 – the Perseids
For revised post containing more tips on how to view the Perseids see The Perseids 2021. Meteors (also known as shooting stars) are bright streaks of light caused by small lumps of rock or metal called meteoroids hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at a very high speed (in the case of the Perseids around 200,000 km/h). As…
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Apollo 11 lunar landing
20 July 2019 is the fiftieth anniversary of the first manned landing on the Moon. Mission Insignia of Apollo 11- Image from NASA On 21 May 1961 President John F Kennedy made the following address to the United States Congress: ‘I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade…
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Summer twilight
This explains the stages of twilight , and describes how the Sun’s path changes throughout the year in Manchester, England. The phenomenon of “Simmer Dim” in the Shetland Islands is highlighted, characterized by continuous twilight and celebrated with a festival.… Continue reading Summer twilight →
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e-book from Explaining Science on Venus
Updated 7 December 2025 I have now updated my e-book on Venus, the planet closest to the Earth in distance, size and internal composition, and the third brightest natural object in our sky after the Sun and the Moon. Topics include To find out more click on A Short Guide to Venus e-book …
Explaining Science 