Simplified Science

Orion, often referred to as The Hunter , is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. Orion got its name from Greek Mythology. The story says, Orion was a giant hunter whom Zeus Placed among the stars as the Orion Constellation. The brightest stars in Orion are Rige l and Betelgeuse .  Located in the constellation Orion, Rigel is a Pulsating Variable Star . It is the brightest object in Orion,Rigel is approximately 863 light-years from earth. The sky location for Rigel is : RA 05h 14m 32s, Dec -09 ° 47' 54" Know the basics of sky gazing,  Sky Gazing for Beginners - Part I Betelgeuse is a Semi-regular Pulsating Star with distinctly reddish-tint. It is the second brightest star in Orion. It is also known by Betelgeuse's Bayer designation Alpha Orionis and is the ninth brightest star in the night sky. It is approximately 498 light-years from earth. Betelgeuse marks the upper right vertex of the Winter Triangle and center o...

Stated Clearly Transcript What is Evolution? In Biology, the theory of Evolution doesn’t tell us exactly how life began on earth, but it helps us understand how life, once it came into existence, diversified into the many incredible forms we see now and in the fossil record.  It also helps us make sense of the way in which modern creatures continue to adapt and change today.  In biology, evolution can be defined as any change in the heritable traits (those are physical traits like fur color in mice, spots on the wings of butterflies, or instinctive traits like the way in which dogs greet their friends with a sniff) within a population, across generations .  This definition can be a bit confusing so let’s see how it works. All healthy living things, from single celled amoebas, to flowers, to dolphins: are capable of reproduction. We have children, we make copies of ourselves. We do this by duplicating our DNA and passing that DNA on to future generations.  DNA is ...

Eyes on the Sky Transcript: Hi I’m David Fuller from the “Eyes on the Sky” video series. Let’s look at Stargazing Basics, starting with understanding directions in the sky. Most of us are already familiar with the cardinal directions of north, south, east and west. Those can be further split into 16 sub-directions, like southwest or south-southwest and south-southeast. But all that really tells us is what direction we are looking from our location; and at best, really only in areas close to the horizon.  Not only that, just as the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the stars in the night sky also rise in the east and set in the west over the course of the night. So how do we discuss other aspects of the sky? Let’s start with those cardinal directions again. If we split the sky exactly in half, from north to south, we would have a line bisecting those halves. That line is called “ The meridian .” This line never moves, because it always divides the sky from north to south. ...

Pic courtesy : Al Jazeera Richard Dawkins is a Biologist, writer and University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science. He is a noted atheist and is famous for popular books on Evolution and Atheism. He is the founder of Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science to promote teaching of evolution. Here's is some of his thought provoking quotes, "One of the things that is wrong with religion is that it teaches us to be satisfied with answers which are not really answers at all" "Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things." "The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry." "Personally, I rather look forward to a computer program winning the world chess championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility." "Religion is about turning untested belief into ...