Transcript: Astronomy is the study of all matter and radiation beyond the earth. Astronomy is the oldest science, but it’s also the science with the most adventure and excitement going on right now. Astronomers are closing in on fundamental questions about the universe we live in including the fact of whether or not we’re alone as life forms, how old the universe is, what the universe contains, and the nature of the big bang itself. Astronomy is currently driven by innovations in...

Transcript: Astrology, or the belief that objects in the sky can control or influence human affairs, has absolutely no scientific basis. It does however have a long and interesting history dating back thousands of years. The Babylonians used astrology 5 thousand years ago. High priests used secret astronomical knowledge to predict natural phenomena in the world for the people so as to stay in power. By the time of the Greeks and Romans, astrology was used by the rulers as a way of...

Transcript: One idea that does not fit neatly into theories of the scientific method is the idea of aesthetics. Science does have aesthetics in its theorizing. In the modern scientific method aesthetics usually apply to the mathematical description of nature. So when we talk about aesthetics in physics or astronomy we’re talking about principles of conservation, the conservation of charge, conservation of quantum number, conservation of energy, or of symmetry; the symmetry between matter...