Marcus Chown
Marcus Chown is an award-winning science writer and cosmology consultant for New Scientist. His latest book, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, is published by Faber.
Articles by Marcus Chown
Is the Universe shaped like a doughnut?
A team of scientists are using supercomputers to try and answer that question
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The greatest astronomy PhD ever written
Cecilia Payne realised that the Sun and stars are primarily hydrogen and helium - only for a man to take credit for the discovery
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The power of guesswork
Sometimes, a good guess is the key to scientific discovery
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A telescope the size of the Earth
How scientists obtained the first image of the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way
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The woman who discovered black holes
Louise Webster has been largely forgotten – it's time to remember her
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Come with me for a walk through the Solar System
You won't believe how big it is
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The birth of neutrino astronomy
The detection of neutrinos from the Milky Way opens up an entirely new way of seeing the Universe
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Where are all the aliens?
As "Doctor Who" marks its 60th anniversary, how far-fetched is this alien-filled universe?
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Could nuclear fusion save the planet?
There have long been hopes that nuclear fusion could provide a fountain of green energy – but recent advances can't obscure the scale of the challenge
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The one rule that binds them all
Nature is obsessed with enforcing a principle known as 'local gauge symmetry' - but we still don't know why
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Jocelyn Bell, woman of steel
Three Nobel Prizes have now been awarded for pulsars, but none has gone to the woman who discovered them.
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Programming in parallel universes
Quantum computers could change the world beyond recognition – but will a working model ever be built?
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Searching for alien technology
The mysterious sighting of ‘Oumuamua has prompted an astrophysicist to head a new drive in the search for alien tech.
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Explosions of brilliant light
What will the most expensive telescope ever built tell us about the origins of the universe?
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The cult of pi
Pi has fascinated mathematicians for millennia. Today, finding a record number of digits of pi has become something of a sport.
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Ready, steady, Mars!
China and the US have rovers on Mars, while the prospect of human missions puts even more pressure on the race to discover life.
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Does Planet Nine exist?
Is the search for a phantom planet on the outskirts of the Solar System nothing more than a wild goose chase?
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The puzzle of nature’s building blocks
That ordinary matter in the Universe is made of just four building blocks is a truly astounding scientific achievement. But there is a peculiar twist.
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On DNA and its marvellous mistakes
Without DNA's capacity to blunder, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.
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Miracle of the plague year
Bubonic plague is raging in London. A 22-year-old man named Isaac Newton is isolating at his family farm.
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A massive cosmic puzzle
Why do we live in a Universe of matter with essentially no antimatter? Neutrinos may hold the answer.
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The alien creatures that live in our bodies
You are born 100 per cent human but die 50 per cent alien, because half the cells in your body do not belong to you.
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10 amazing facts about the Moon
Half a century on from the Apollo 11 mission, how well do you really know our lunar friend, its moonquakes and Moon dust?
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Looking back in time and space
The snail-like progress of light across our enormous Universe essentially transforms telescopes into time machines.
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Our incredible shrinking brains
The human brain has shrunk around 10 per cent in mass since peaking in size 15-30,000 years ago.
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The terrifying power of solar flares
Understanding the Sun is not just an academic activity. Our survival may depend on predicting the “space weather” it creates.
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Stellar prophesies: the power of prediction
Urbain Le Verrier’s discovery of Neptune revealed the true magic of science: an ability to predict things never before suspected
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The mysteries of the neutrino
Neutrinos are the most common particles in the universe - but don't underestimate their significance.
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The madness of the quantum universe
The fundamental building blocks of matter have a strange dual nature.
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When our sun was young
The "faint young Sun paradox" has puzzled scientists for decades.
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Primordial black holes and an unprecedented discovery
Is it possible that we have witnessed the merger of two massive black holes?
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Why physics isn’t dead
Relativity and quantum theory help us make sense of the universe – but physics still has huge mysteries left to unravel.
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The search for a new planet
Two astronomers have stunned the scientific community with their claim that another world circles beyond the eight known worlds.
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How to listen to the universe
The detection of gravitational waves is the most important development in astronomy since the invention of the telescope.
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Black hole blues
For a century, scientists have tried to solve the riddles posed by Einstein’s theory of relativity.
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The secrets of rock tides
The pull of the Moon does not create tides only in the Earth's oceans, but in its rocks as well.
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The secret of how electricity powers the world
Mind-bogglingly powerful forces operate in the world around us without us noticing.
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Why you might not want the most powerful computer imaginable
We live in an epoch where computing power doubles roughly every two years.
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The afterglow of creation
The story of cosmic background radiation is a classic example of the chaotic way in which scientific discoveries occur.
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What comet landings can tell us about the origins of life
Comets are the builders’ rubble left over from the birth of the Solar System.
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Ten cosmic myths
Why is the sky at night dark? What does gravity do? How big is the universe? Does time go forwards or backwards? The answers may surprise you . . .
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The dark side of our universe
It is sobering to think that our telescopes can observe only a tiny fraction of the cosmos, writes Marcus Chown
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How farming gave us the iPhone
We live in an age of relentless innovation – and it's all because our ancestors started planting crops, says Marcus Chown
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How did the universe get so complicated?
We live in a random universe, explains Marcus Chown
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The death of the Milky Way
There may be darkness ahead, but we’re lucky to have been born in a bright universe, says Marcus Chown
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Why is the Sun hot?
Our local star is very inefficient, says Marcus Chown. And we should be grateful for that
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Time to rethink physics?
In his new book the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin calls for a major shift in the discipline and a recognition that rather than a relative value or an effect of space, time is real and fundamental. Marcus Chown explains
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Home sweet home
It’s not the biggest or the most spectacular, but our little galaxy suits Marcus Chown just fine
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Masters of the universe
At the heart of galaxies lie supermassive black holes, which, according to a new theory, might hold the key to life itself. Marcus Chown and Caleb Scharf look beyond the event horizon
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Bad Moon rising
Earth’s satellite may have begun life as its parent planet’s stalker, says Marcus Chown
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Circle in a spiral
Saturn’s rings stumped the most famous astronomer of them all, but not Marcus Chown
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Footprints in the dust
Twelve men have left their footprints on the Moon. How long will they last? Marcus Chown explains
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Ring of fire
Visitors flock to the Poles to observe the natural wonder of the aurora. But they witness a mere fraction of what can be seen from space, explains Marcus Chown
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Alien sunset
It's dusk, but not as we know it. Marcus Chown explains
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Our fragile home
Voyager’s distant photo of Earth should remind us that we’re all in this together, says Marcus Chown
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Please squeeze me
Marcus Chown on the hottest body in the Solar System
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Hoag’s Object
A spiral galaxy has Marcus Chown's head spinning
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Crack up
Marcus Chown wonders if there is life beneath Europa's icy surface
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Spiders from Mars
What causes the dust devils on the Red Planet’s surface? asks Marcus Chown
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Cosmic Accelerator
Six hundred million light years away, the ‘active galaxy’ Cygnus A fires huge quantities of particles at unimaginable speeds, finds Marcus Chown
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Book review: The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene
Brian Green's dizzying new book offers a window onto the cutting edge of theoretical physics. Marcus Chown goes in search of the multiverse
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Two-faced Moon
Photographs of Saturn’s third largest moon taken by the Cassini probe reveal an explanation of its mysterious two-toned appearance, says Marcus Chown
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Cloudy with a chance of hexagons
Why is there a six-sided cloud on Saturn’s north pole? wonders Marcus Chown
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The Sun at night
The 'Super-K' detector is built 3,000 feet down in a mine beneath Hida in Japan. This is one of its most famous images. Marcus Chown explains
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A star is born
Since its launch 20 years ago, the Hubble telescope has been sending back stunning images that have transformed our understanding of the universe. This is Marcus Chown’s favourite
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The eye of Sauron
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what will become of our own star, says Marcus Chown
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Logicomix: An Epic Search for the Truth by Apostolous Doxiadis & Christos Papadimitriou
Marcus Chown enjoys a graphic maths lesson
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The Earth Moves: Galileo and the Roman Inquisition
Marcus Chown learns how the Catholic Church silenced Galileo
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