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The Dark Sector Lab (DSL), located 3/4 of a mile from the Geographic South Pole, houses the BICEP2 telescope (left) and the South Pole Telescope (right). Steffen Richter/Harvard University hide caption

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Steffen Richter/Harvard University

Opinion

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

The Truth? It's Out There In The Fog

April 9, 2014 • How much can theories tell us about nature? For one thing, they can't tell you the truth. A recent cosmic discovery about the earliest moments of the Big Bang highlights this conundrum.

Are humans, and our fellow travelers on Earth, latecomers to the game of life? Illustration/iStockphoto hide caption

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Illustration/iStockphoto

Opinion

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Eureka! First Life In The Universe

February 4, 2014 • When did it first become possible for life (as we know it) to appear in the cosmos? The answer seems obvious now. But it arrived, unexpectedly, in the shower. It's a story that tells us a lot about how creativity works in science.

There's Trouble Brewing At The Birth Of The Universe

Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) as observed by Planck. The CMB is a snapshot of the oldest light in our Universe, imprinted on the sky when the Universe was just 380,000 years old. Planck Collaboration/ESA hide caption

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Planck Collaboration/ESA

April 16, 2013 • Scientists can't just agree to disagree. It's not because we are stubborn or ornery (OK, maybe we are). It's because science faces a fundamental problem when it can't agree on numbers like the value of the Hubble Constant. The whole point of science is to establish an understanding of the cosmos on which we can all agree.

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