Category Archives: Cosmology

Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 2

Posted on 7 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

More summary of this Brian Greene book. Earlier: post 1. 3, Origins and Entropy: From Creation to Structure, p44 If the universe began with a big explosion, how has so much order, with complex structures, emerged? Because, consistent with the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Cosmology, Evolution | Comments Off on Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 2

Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 1

Posted on 3 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve mentioned this book several times over the years (it was published in 2020), most recently here in early June, when I sat down to read it all the way through. I finished in mid-July. Subtitled: “Mind, Matter, and Our … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Cosmology, Philosophy | Comments Off on Brian Greene: UNTIL THE END OF TIME, post 1

Visiting the Profound

Posted on 2 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Brian Greene on understanding reality as a collection of nested stories; Recalling analogous thoughts by Sean Carroll and others; Big Think’s Ethan Siegel on the success of modern fundamental science. Perhaps today we can step back from the paranoid, delusional … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Cosmology, Narrative, Physics, Science | Comments Off on Visiting the Profound

Another Gloss on Philosophy

Posted on 6 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I think I mentioned this book before. It’s a compilation of rough summaries of twelve general topics, from American Studies to World History, with literature, music, philosophy, religion, science, and others in between, written for people who worry that their … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Philosophy, Religion | Comments Off on Another Gloss on Philosophy

Jaime Green, THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE

Posted on 9 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here is a book published about a year ago now that turns out to be very similar, thematically, to the more recent book by Adam Frank, The Little Book of Aliens, that I reviewed here in January. That book was … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Cosmology, Science | Comments Off on Jaime Green, THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE

A Potential Revolutionary Scientific Reinterpretation

Posted on 16 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

No one thinks that all of physics, or cosmology, is solved; the reigning problems in cosmology include contradictory conclusions about the age of the universe, and the nature of “dark matter” and “dark energy,” both terms being placeholders for unknown … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Science | Comments Off on A Potential Revolutionary Scientific Reinterpretation

Cosmic and Psychological Lessons

Posted on 8 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Phil Plait on the scale of the cosmos; Beware of pluralistic ignorance; How math education can be better taught with examples about money. – – –   Today’s cosmic lesson. Scientific American, Phil Plait, 8 Mar 2024: The Scale of … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Cosmology, Mathematics, Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Cosmic and Psychological Lessons

Three brief (non-political) items today.

Posted on 3 February 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

On entertaining new ideas; Reality and quantum mechanics; Nature as the great recycler. Here’s the first post in a new column that sounds interesting. Washington Post, Daniel Pink, 29 Jan 2024: Opinion | American imagination needs an adrenaline shot. Here’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Science, Thinking | Comments Off on Three brief (non-political) items today.

The Extent of the Universe, and Our History of Understanding It

Posted on 7 November 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

NY Times with a photo spread of images from the James Webb telescope; Big Think with a timeline of our history of understanding our universe. —— NY Times, Kate LaRue, 5 Nov 2023: The James Webb telescope is a giant … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Cosmology, Science | Leave a comment

Science and Art and Predictions and Immortality

Posted on 23 October 2023 by Mark R. Kelly

Carlo Rovelli on science and art; Big Think on failed predictions; Immortality as a philosophical paradox; Michio Kaku on the four types of planetary civilizations. —— NY Times, guest essay by Carlo Rovelli, 16 Oct 2023: The Secret to Unlocking … Continue reading →

Posted in Cosmology, Evolution, Science | Leave a comment