Bang! Goes the Universe

In this series opening episode, we'll take a look at the timeline from the very beginning to the present state of play in the known universe according to the consensus within the field of cosmology.
The episode includes the names of some of the people who introduced the concepts involved in the current conclusive understanding of the expansion idea. This is meant to be a primer for the deeper dive into the history of the people and events that have led to our current understanding.
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https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bgtu

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A 45-minutes discussion with the director of the Carnegie Observatories about his journey as an astronomy, the state of research, new technologies and the development of the Giant Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas, Chile. John is renowned for his research on dark matter in galaxy groups. As observatory director he has spearheaded outreach programs for astronomy lovers and aspiring astronomers young and old. Check the links below for a video version of this episode and links to the GMT and Carnegie websites. Hope you enjoy the conversation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQJrlHrDP1M&t=5s
https://giantmagellan.org/
https://carnegiescience.edu/

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Daniel Lewis is the Dibner Senior Curator for the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California. A native of Hawaii, he's an environmental historian and author whose latest book, Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future, is due to be released in March of 2024. The library has connections with Caltech and University of Southern California and houses some of the world's foremost collections of manuscripts and other ephemera, including a large collection dedicated to science and astronomy in particular. In this 45-minute interview Dan and I discuss the library, the nature of research and some of the key aspects of research writing, in general.

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One of the most brilliant men of science in the ancient world, Eratosthenes was best known as a scholar and librarian in his day, But he made his greatest contribution to science in the realms of geometry and astronomy fueled by his curiosity, ingenuity and reason. From his home in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, he used a chance reading from a book at the library of Alexandria to devise a method of determining the shape and size of the earth. Not stopping there, he later determined the size and distance to the moon with fair accuracy and even attempted the same of the sun.
For more information on each episode visit my website:
https://www.ronvoller.com/

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This Ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician built upon the suppositions of his predecessor creating a heliocentric model of the universe with the earth, moon and planets orbiting the Sun during the 3rd century BCE. Using an observation from Anaxagoras about the cause of eclipses, some geometry and some clever thinking, he devised a method of determining the size of the sun and moon and even took a stab at understanding their distances to the earth. His work would be built on further by Eratosthenes a century later.
For more information about each episode go to my website:
https://www.ronvoller.com/

Support the show