Viruses form a shell around themselves called a capsid. This shell, or capsid, protects the viruses genetic material, or RNA, from intruders. The most interesting part about the capsids is how they are formed. Like all DNA or RNA molecules, they include instructions for their replication. Ribosomes take the instructions stored in the DNA or RNA to build more of those same molecules. But viruses have a limited amount of storage, which means the instructions held in their RNA cannot have complex assembly steps. Instead, they have a...

What does astronomical mean? That word is part of our vernacular yet I feel we don't give it the due it deserves. If you look at the definition from the Oxford dictionary you will find: 1. Relating to astronomy. ‘astronomical observations’ 2. informal (of an amount) extremely large. ‘he wanted an astronomical fee’ But what is extremely large? Really, really large :) Just kidding of course, but I think these terms do not illustrate the proper meaning of the word. To provide context of how astronomical our known...

The news of the first-ever image of a black hole swept the world yesterday. Einstein's equations and our general understanding of physics had predicted these phenomena in space, but we had never actually seen one. Artists had done a great job at illustrating these "black holes" in the universe, but yesterday's image was visual proof they existed. Even with our advanced understanding of physics, black holes have always inspired awe. After all, how can something so massive be so small (relatively speaking) and so large at the same...

The first-ever image of a black hole in space is here. This is quite a contradiction because nothing can escape a black hole, not even light, and without light we have no images. So how, then, can this be? First, let's talk about what a black hole is and how they are created. A black hole is created when a big-enough star dies and its mass collapses onto itself. The creation of a black hole is something difficult to comprehend. For example, suppose our Sun became a black...

Einstein is the most famous scientist in modern history. So famous and well-known that he's name has become a noun ("look at that Einstein over there", or "you are smart like Einstein"). So it may come as a surprise to you to find out that our dear Einstein was wrong about our Universe and its current expansion. One of the theories of the Universe is the Big-Bang Theory. This is the theory that at some point a "Big-Bang" created our current Universe from an infinite amount of mass....