Dan Falk

 

Dan Falk is a science journalist based in Toronto. His books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time.

Smithsonian magazine’s top science titles this year.

The Ten Best Science Books of 2024

From a deep dive on a fatal space shuttle disaster to a study of a dozen iconic trees, these are our favorite titles this year

Analysis of the Bullet Cluster, which was formed after two large clusters of galaxies collided, supports the existence of dark matter.

After Decades of Searching, Are Physicists Closing In on Dark Matter?

With no conclusive laboratory results, researchers are turning to other methods to find the elusive substance

The Milky Way spreads across the night sky above the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. 

This Revolutionary New Observatory Will Locate Threatening Asteroids and Millions of Galaxies

Beginning next year, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will use the world’s largest digital camera to give us a whole new view of the universe

A total solar eclipse as seen from Kentucky in 2017

How Ancient Civilizations Reacted to Eclipses

Communities may have thought the celestial events were messages from the gods, a reason to abandon a settlement or a cue to end a war

An artist’s rendering of a pantheon of planets similar to Earth

This Planned NASA Telescope May Help Us Identify Worlds Like Our Own

The innovative Habitable Worlds Observatory will offer ways to detect signs of life on other planets

Our ten favorite science books of the year covered everything from astronomy to undersea exploration.

The Ten Best Science Books of 2023

From stories on the depths of the ocean to the stars in the sky, these are the works that moved us the most this year

Data from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera were used to make this extremely detailed image of the Southern Ring Nebula.

Seven Amazing Accomplishments the James Webb Telescope Achieved in Its First Year

The observatory has yielded jaw-dropping shots—and surprising facts—about our universe

The total solar eclipse of 2017 as seen from Monmouth, Oregon

Everything You Need to Know About the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

A veteran eclipse chaser explains how to get ready for one of the planet’s biggest celestial events

Astronomers and musicians have developed “sonifications” to bring the symphony of the cosmos to a wider audience.

What Does the Universe Sound Like?

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and other researchers have melded astronomy and music to offer a new oeuvre

This year’s picks include Fresh Banana Leaves, Origin and Starry Messenger.

The Ten Best Science Books of 2022

From a detective story on the origins of Covid-19 to a narrative that imagines a fateful day for dinosaurs, these works affected us the most this year

This large mosaic of the Crab Nebula, which formed after a supernova explosion, was assembled from 24 individual exposures captured by Hubble Space Telescope over three months.

When Will the Next Supernova in Our Galaxy Occur?

Scientists have new tools at their disposal to detect and study the dramatic explosion of a star

Over the course of our planet’s history, major impacts by comets and asteroids are plentiful.

The Very Real Effort to Track Killer Asteroids and Comets

In "Don't Look Up," researchers warn authorities about a comet hurtling towards Earth. Such a scenario isn’t just science fiction

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The Ten Best Science Books of 2021

From captivating memoirs by researchers to illuminating narratives by veteran science journalists, these works affected us the most this year

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope snapped this picture of the Centaur LD2 as it orbited near Jupiter.

The Ambitious Idea to Study the Evolution of a Comet

Researchers want to send a spacecraft near Jupiter to join up with a chunk of rock and ice as it’s flung toward the sun

DESI will analyze light collected by the four-meter Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.

New Project Aims to Create Most Detailed 3-D Map of the Universe

An instrument named “DESI” will chart up to 40 million galaxies, ten times more than any previous survey

So far, scientists have only documented jagged lightning bolts. Some physicists believe that the discovery of a completely straight lightning bolt could prove the existence of dark matter.

Could Weirdly Straight Bolts of Lightning Be a Sign of Dark Matter?

A group of scientists say the phenomenon could indicate dark matter speeding through our world at more than 300 miles a second

Albert Einstein arrived in New York on the SS Rotterdam IV; crowds of people awaited his arrival in the States.

One Hundred Years Ago, Einstein Was Given a Hero's Welcome by America's Jews

The German physicist toured the nation as a fundraiser for Zionist causes, even though he was personally torn on the topic of a Jewish nation

A statue of Charles Darwin sits in the Natural History Museum in London. The scientist's book 'Descent of Man' was published in 1871.

How Darwin's 'Descent of Man' Holds Up 150 Years After Publication

Questions still swirl around the author’s theories about sexual selection and the evolution of minds and morals

A student tries to solve a math problem.

What Is Math?

A teenager asked that age-old question on TikTok, creating a viral backlash, and then, a thoughtful scientific debate

Herbert Spencer introduced the phrase "survival of the fittest" in his 1864 book, Principles of Biology.

The Complicated Legacy of Herbert Spencer, the Man Who Coined 'Survival of the Fittest'

Spencer's ideas laid the groundwork for social Darwinism, but scholars say there was much more to the Victorian Age thinker than that

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