Brian Koberlein
Astrophysicist and Author
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The Way the Universe Changed
At the end of the 1800s we finally knew how the universe worked. Our classical laws of physics worked extraordinarily well. At the time it was thought that the last few mysteries of physics would soon be solved. But they weren't. Instead, small mysteries became large ones. Science would soon undergo a quantum revolution.
Blog
The Librarian and the Astrophysicist
When I was about nine my parents finally allowed me to go to the library on my own. As a resident of the county, I had my own library card, and that meant I could check out up to five books at a time. For a midwest farm kid, it was like the entire world lay open before me. For free.
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Proven World
In Medieval Europe, the physical universe could be divided into two parts: the Earth and earthly events (chaotic and temporary) and the heavens (structured and eternal). Two things changed this view. The first was rise of accurate astronomical measurements. The second was the rise of the physical sciences. Read about how our views of the universe changed in this series of posts.
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Science Fiction, Science Fact
We love dreaming of new horizons, and science fiction can create entire tales from the the mere whiff of scientific possibility. This can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand science fiction lets us explore the possibilities, and can inspire an interest in science. On the other hand, the trappings of science fiction can make awesome feats of human engineering seem trivial.
Recent Work
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Fluffy
Fluffy wasn’t so bad, once you got to know him. Mind you, that took me a while. I was pretty timid as a child, and closet monsters aren’t particularly social creatures.
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Hello, Neighbor
There is an Earth-sized planet only four light years from Earth. Whether it has life is yet to be known.
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Stellar Visitor
About 70,000 years ago a small red dwarf star known as Scholz’s Star came within 50,000 astronomical units of the Sun. In the future, other stars will come closer.
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A Faint and Distant Pull
If Planet Nine is a primordial black hole, we might be able to find it from its gravitational pull alone.
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The Man
The man was tall, thin, almost gaunt. His face held a scowl deep etched on his face. I didn’t like what I saw.
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A New Lens on the Universe
When the light of a distant galaxy is gravitationally lensed by a closer galaxy, it tells a story of the history of the universe.
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In the Air
On a cool Summer morning in 1908, a fireball appeared over Northern Siberia. Now known as the Tunguska Event, its cause remains a mystery to this day.
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The Boxes
Nobody knew what they were, or even what they did. They were given all sorts of names, but the one that stuck was just to call them the boxes.