Page 3 - Ask Ethan News Today

"I have just gone over my comet computations again, and it is humiliating to perceive how very little more I know than I did seven years ago when I first did this kind of work." -Maria Mitchell

"The world owes you nothing. It was here first." -Mark Twain When you think about where all of this came from -- back to the beginning of the Universe -- there's a good chance it makes you a little uncomfortable. For this week's Ask Ethan, our one remaining column here on ScienceBlogs, our reader vvv asks a question that quite possibly many of you have wondered: Why didn't the universe collapse into a black hole right "at the moment of the big bang?"

“I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.” -Johannes Kepler, 1601 It's easy to think of some things as eternal, even though nothing truly is. The Sun is long lived, and it has another 7 billion years (or so) to go before it runs out of fuel, but eventually it, too, will die. But surely gravitational orbits will outlast us all, right?

“In this land of ours, there are many great pits. But none more bottomless than the bottomless pit. Which, as you can see here, is bottomless.” -Grunkle Stan, Gravity Falls After another week of fun-filled stories about the Universe here at Starts With A Bang, it's time to take a look back at everything we've said, as well as everything you've said in response. If you missed anything (or simply want a second look), here's what we've covered over the past week:

“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” -Wayne Dyer We all can think back to that moment that happened where we knew our lives would be forever different, right? To that one moment in our past where we suddenly knew what it was that we wanted to be, what we wanted to do, what that special career move defining us would wind up becoming.

"To be is to be the value of a variable." -Willard Van Orman Quine

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." -Soren Kierkegaard After all is said-and-done this week, and after all the new posts over at the main Starts With A Bang on Medium, you've had a chance to have your say here on our forum! And Kierkegaard would likely change his tune if everyone he came across left comments like yours.

"That which you create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come." -Denis Waitley

"A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." -Max Planck

“Ignorance is hardly unusual, Miss Davar. The longer I live, the more I come to realize that it is the natural state of the human mind. There are many who will strive to defend its sanctity and then expect you to be impressed with their efforts.” -Brandon Sanderson