Decoding the Universe

DECODING THE UNIVERSE

See how our understanding of nature and the universe has been transformed since the 1970s.

How big is the universe? What is it made of? Are we alone? Questions like these have inspired amazing discoveries that have transformed our understanding of the universe since the 1970s, shedding light on everything from exoplanets to black holes to the mysterious dark matter and energy that rule the cosmos. And closer to home, quantum physicists have discovered the weird laws that govern the subatomic world, unlocking amazing technologies—from the smart phone in your pocket to powerful new quantum computers taking shape in labs today.

COSMOS at TPT

How big is the universe? If it began with the Big Bang, will it also have an end? Is there life beyond our planet? Questions like these inspired the launch of Voyager I in 1977 and have driven innovative space research and exploration ever since. Trace ground-breaking discoveries that have transformed our picture of the universe, from an age when we knew of no planets beyond our solar system, to today, when we have evidence of thousands and estimate trillions more. And follow the teams trying to solve two of the biggest mysteries in cosmology today: What are dark matter and dark energy?

QUANTUM at TPT

When we look at the world at the tiniest scales in the subatomic realm, things get weird – very weird. Welcome to the quantum universe, where particles can spin in two directions at once, observing something changes it, and something on one side of the galaxy can instantly affect something on the other, as if the space between them didn’t exist. Buckle up for a wild ride through the discoveries that proved all of this to be true and paved the way for the digital technologies we enjoy today – and the powerful quantum sensors and computers of tomorrow.

Will there be more episodes of Decoding the Universe? I don't know. Somehow in 2024, my search engine skills are unequal to the challenge of finding out. Someone deep in PBS NOVA HQ knows. I'm hoping more episodes will be added to this collection. 

Solar System

PBS NOVA has once again teamed up with BBC for another space science miniseries. The Planets (2019) was followed by Universe Revealed (2021).

This year, it was deeper dive into the solar system. You might wonder what was left to document so soon (in space documentary years) after The Planets. What Solar System does is to open things up to include moons and dwarf planets. Suddenly to the topic candidates expand from fewer than a dozen to hundreds. We've been sending probes to explore these words for decades, and researchers have been able to identify and sort unexpected mysteries. 

Ice worlds composed of hot, black ice, volcanic worlds heated by tidal forces, dwarf planets that kiss more than they collide, comets, asteroids, and an unseen cloud of countless worlds. Solar System dives deep into some two dozen worlds in our own neighborhood, including Haumea, Ganymede, Miranda, Pan, Io, Enceladus, Iapetus, Phobos, Ceres, Triton, and Charon. Earth is included in the mix, correctly cast among the "Strange Worlds." Honestly, the more you know about Earth, the stranger it seems.

Thanks once again to my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Murphy, for encouraging me to deepen my fascination with the other worlds of the solar system years before the Vikings or the Voyagers.

SOLAR SYSTEM at TPT

All across the solar system, volcanoes are erupting, storms are raging, and ice is acting in strange ways. And surprises like these aren’t limited to planets: Our solar system is home to a myriad of fascinating smaller bodies, including moons, asteroids, and comets. In recent decades, space missions have brought these neighboring worlds into sharp focus. Now, using the latest scientific imagery and stunningly realistic animations, planetary scientists take us on a journey across the solar system to uncover new revelations about our celestial neighborhood–and illuminate how Earth may be the oddest world of all.

1. STORM WORLDS at TPT

VENUS · MARS · JUPITER · TITAN

Across the solar system, wild storms are raging. From globe-spanning dust storms, to monsoons of liquid methane, to monstrous storms with lightning bolts ten times more energetic than anything on Earth–our solar system is full of weird and wonderful weather. Explore the forces that create the truly awesome and extreme conditions found on our neighboring planets and moons. 

2. STRANGE WORLDS at TPT

HAUMEA · GANYMEDE · MIRANDA · PAN · CASSINI · EARTH

From a dwarf planet that looks like a deflated football, to a tiny moon with cliffs taller than Mt. Everest, to the spectacular rings of Saturn, discover how the effects of gravity produce the amazing variety of weird worlds in our solar system. 

3. VOLCANO WORLDS at TPT

MARS · IO · ENCELADUS · VENUS

All around our solar system, volcanoes are powerful shapers of worlds. Next door on Mars is Olympus Mons, a giant volcanic mountain more than twice the size of Mount Everest. And closer to the Sun, thousands of volcanoes produce the toxic atmosphere that keeps Venus boiling. Then there’s Jupiter’s moon Io, the most volcanically active world in the entire solar system, and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, where clues in its watery eruptions hint at the possibility of life. Discover the explosive forces that molded each of these worlds–and what makes the volcanoes right here on Earth so special.

4. ICY WORLDS at TPT

PLUTO · URANUS · IAPETUS · MARS · EARTH 

Ice might seem familiar to us on Earth, but out in the solar system, it can get quite exotic. From Uranus’s ultra hot superionic ice, to glaciers of nitrogen ice on Pluto, to carbon dioxide snow on Mars, ice is a fundamental building block throughout our cosmic neighborhood. Visit some of the strange, frozen worlds of our solar system to discover why the ice here on Earth so special—and why we wouldn’t be here without it. 

5. WANDERING WORLDS at TPT

PHOBOS · CERES · TRITON · CHARON · OORT CLOUD

The classic view of our solar system contains eight orderly planets, some with moons in neat orbits—but when we look closer, we discover a bunch of stuff missing from this simple, clockwork model. Wandering worlds that seem out of place, found in the gaps between and beyond the planets, offer clues that our cosmic neighborhood is far more dynamic than we once thought. From the meteorites that impact Earth, to a moon that orbits backwards, to an imposter lurking in the asteroid belt, these wandering worlds are rewriting what we know—and even how we think about—our solar system.

More BBC PBS NOVA space science question sets:

The Planets: Inner Worlds, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Ice Worlds

Universe Revealed: Age of Stars, Milky Way, Alien Worlds, Black Holes, Milky Way

Omnivore

I am a fan of James Burke's Connections and Carl Sagan's Cosmos. When I watched Omnivore on AppleTV+, it seemed like host René Redzepi was revealing connections in the cosmos of comestibles. 

Is Redzepi the Burke/Sagan of foods? Yes he is. (I try to quash any envy I might harbor toward people like Redzepi, but acknowledge I will never be as good at anything as Redzepi is at food.)

The story of what we eat is the story of us. Omnivore tells the story in eight chapters: Chile, Tuna, Salt, Banana, Pig, Rice, Coffee, and Corn.

The series is beautifully photographed on location in Denmark, Serbia, Thailand, Spain, Japan, France, Peru, Korea, Djibouti, India, Mexico, Colombia, Rwanda, and the US. Program participants speak in their native languages and there are no voice-overs. There are subtitles. It's nice to hear the character and inflections of participants' voices.

Of course, I have questions! 

OMNIVORE at TPT

Take a look at the world through the lens of food and explores how food explains the past and forecasts the future.

Crosswords that work in college prep courses

Crossword puzzles are amusements appropriate for elementary school students. Middle school at tops. They sit at the base of Bloom's taxonomy, and have no place in a rigorous high school college prep course,

Or so I thought.

I don't even remember what my impetus was for creating a series of crossword puzzles for my college prep physic course, but create I did. Computer software meant I could load a list of words and the computer would craft a puzzle grid. Then I could add words to flesh out the puzzle and fill the page.

What I didn't expect was student enthusiasm for the puzzles. That enthusiasm acted s a catalyst, and I worked out an implementation scheme.

When students finish a unit test on test day, I don't have anything else for them to do. Students work at different paces and I wanted everyone to have ample time to complete the test. So quick finishers have time left over. In college, they could simply leave the classroom. In high school, that's not an option. So now there's a problem: students who are finished have "idle hands"... the Devil's plaything. They want to talk to classmates or (increasingly) be on their phones. I wasn't good with phones in my classroom, especially during a test administration.

So when students turn in their Unit 1 Test, they pick up the Unit 2 Crossword. It includes Unit 2 vocabulary words. Their task for the remainder of the period is to work on the puzzle. Now you might reasonably wonder how students can work on a crossword filled with terms they have yet to learn.

Therein lies The Lessons of Phyz crosswords difference. My crosswords include a wealth of general knowledge/trivia, general science (planet names, etc.), state nicknames, elements, acronyms and initialism, and pop culture references (Disney, Star Wars, contemporary music, etc.). Students can tear into the crosswords right away. Oh, and review terms from previous units are always fair game.

More surprises. Not only did students devour the crosswords, the students who seemed to enjoy them the most were the ones who struggled the most in the course. I often caught grief from colleagues who complained about my students working on their crosswords in their classes. (I color-coded my handouts: each unit was a different color, in accordance with the spectrum. Unit 1 was pink, 2 salmon, 3 canary, 4 green, 5 blue, 6 lavender; rinse and repeat at semester.) I confess I never admonished my students for working on their crosswords outside of my class.

Now that I've created a few series of crosswords, I thought of an application that hadn't occurred to me before. The first day of school is significant, and warrants above and beyond levels of planning. I never jumped straight into heavy content on Day 1. It was a day devoted to "Physics Begins With an M: Mystery, Magic, and Myths". Essentially a day of unanswered questions. But I didn't leave students with anything to do after the presentation. 

Why not give them a crossword for Unit 1 on their first day? The puzzles are by no means a drag, especially with all the off-topic tangents. If anything, I think students would enjoy knocking out the easy clues and pondering the elusive terms yet to be learned.

Here's a post detailing The Lessons of Phyz crossword advantages. It takes me a full day to craft each puzzle. Filling the otherwise empty spaces is quite a process, which is why most teacher-created crosswords you see have enough empty space to grow farm crops.

Here are the crossword puzzle series that I've completed. I've set the first puzzle in each set as free. And I've made an online version of a puzzle from most sets openly accessible. Note: the online puzzles are intended for desktops, laptops, and tablets; they don't play nicely on phones.

Give the crosswords a try as part of your first day of school lesson. It's free, and you might be surprised how well these things land.

High School Physics  (aligned with OpenStax Physics: High School) · Online Sample

Conceptual Physics ( (aligned with Conceptual Physics: High School 2009) · Online Sample

AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 (aligned with AP Physics 1 and 2)

Chemistry (aligned with OpenStax Chemistry) · Online Sample 

Biology (aligned with OpenStax Concepts in Biology) · Online Sample

Astronomy (aligned with OpenStax Astronomy 2e) · Online Sample

High School Physics Crossword Puzzles [OpenStax-aligned]

The first set of crossword puzzles I posted on TPT consisted of puzzles I created years ago for my Conceptual Physics course. Next I posted a set intended for use with AP Physics students. Then I proceeded with crosswords aligned with the OpenStax Chemistry, Biology, and Astronomy textbooks.

The Chemistry textbook had a decent set of key terms for each chapter. Key terms in Biology were ... abundant! In the Astronomy textbook, I needed to supplement key terms with "non-key" terms from the chapters.

This brings me to the OpenStax Physics: High School textbook. I aimed for about 50 topical terms (key and non-key terms from each chapter along with review terms from previous chapters as needed). Additional terms were added to fill the gaps in the puzzle. Additional terms could be physics or science-related. But they could also be from random tops all over the general knowledge board. State nicknames, chemical symbols, tech, Roman numerals, and so on.

As ever, the resulting puzzles each include over 100 words with over 150 crosses. "Busy crosswords".

I gave crosswords to students as they finished unit tests. It gave quick test-takers something to do while classmates finished their tests. I gave them puzzles for the upcoming unit of study. Each puzzle had enough non-chapter terms to keep students engaged before and while learning the upcoming unit.

High School Physics Crosswords MEGABUNDLE at TPT

All 23 puzzles, bundled and steeply discounted.

High School Physics Crosswords Series One: Motion and Forces at TPT

Puzzles 1-5 bundled and discounted.

1. What is Physics? at TPT

Word Count: 109     Word Crosses (Puzzle Score): 166     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.52

Key Terms: Accuracy, Ampere, Atom, Base, Classical, Constant, Conversion, Dependent, Derived, Experiment, Exponential, Hypothesis, Independent, Intercept, Inverse, Kilogram, Law, LHC, Linear, Logarithmic, Log-log, Meter, Methods, Model, Modern, MRI, Notation, Observation, Order, Percents, Physical, Physics, Precision, Principle, Quadratic, Quantity, Quantum, Relationship, Relativity, Rosetta, Science, Second, Semi-log, Significant, Slope, Stonehenge, Theory, Uncertainty, Units, Universal

Selected Additional Terms: AI, Air, Angle, Deep, Echo, Fe, Fermi, GMO, HTML, IRL, Kelvin, Krypton, LA, mg, Micro, Motion, Nano, Pi, RNA, Sphere, Square, URL, VGA

2. Motion in One Dimension at TPT

Word Count: 119     Puzzle Score: 179     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.50

Key Terms: Acceleration, Accuracy, Atom, Average, Base, Constant, Delta, Dependent, Derived, Displacement, Distance, Experiment, Giga, Independent, Instantaneous, Inverse, Kilo, Kinematics, Linear, Magnitude, Mega, Meter, Methods, Observation, Physics, Pico, Position, Precision, Principle, Quantity, Reference, Rise, Run, Scalar, Science, Second, Slope, Speed, Speedometer, Tangent, Time, Uncertainty, Units, Universal, Vector, Velocity

Selected Additional Terms: Au, Cos, Cyan, Ear, Earth, Force, Fracture, Ga, Helium, Hot, Hydrogen, Ice, Ion, ISS, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, PCR, Pi, Pluto, Push, Quad, Rx, Saturn, Season, SEO, Sigma, Sin, Snow, SSD, Stereo, STP, Telescope, Ten, Tera, Uranus, URL, Venus

3. Acceleration at TPT

Word Count: 121     Puzzle Score: 180     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.49

Key Terms: Accelerator, Accuracy, Average, Base, Classical, Constant, Conversion, Deceleration, Delta, Displacement, Experiment, Giga, Gravity, Hypothesis, Instantaneous, Inverse, Kilo, Kilogram, Kinematic, Kinematics, Magnitude, Mega, Meter, Micro, Milli, Modern, Nano, Negative, Notation, Observation, Peta, Physics, Pico, Position, Precision, Quantum, Reference, Rise, Run, Scalar, Science, Second, Speed, Speedometer, Theory, Uncertainty, Units, Vector, Velocity, Vomit

Selected Additional Terms: Air, Atom, CDC, CME, Crater, ISS, Jupiter, Larva, Lithium, Mars, Mass, Mercury,, Neptune, Pulp, Rush, Saturn, Scholar, Strike, Twitter, UK, UV, Velocity, Weight

4. Forces and Newton's Laws of Motion at TPT

Word Count: 119     Puzzle Score: 190     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.60

Key Terms: Acceleration, Accelerator, Average, Coefficient, Constant, Deceleration, Delta, Dependent, Displacement, Distance, Dynamics, External, First, Force, Free, Freefall, Friction, Gravity, Independent, Inertia, Instantaneous, Kinematic, Kinematics, Law, Magnitude, Mass, Negative, Net, Newton, Normal, Position, Reference, Resistance, Scalar, Second, Speed, Speedometer, Sum, System, Tangent, Tension, Third, Thrust, Time, Vector, Velocity, Weight

Selected Additional Terms: AGN, ASL, Atom, Au, CME, Coma, Effect, External, GMO, Hot, ICE, Inch, Inert, Iridium, Jupiter, Kilogram, Knee, Luna, ma, MRI, Nagasaki, Nano, Neptune, Observation, Omega, Quotient, REM, rms, RN, Sister, State, Sunscreen, Tegu, Titania, TNT, UFO, Uranus, USB, Velocity, Xe

5. Motion in Two Dimensions at TPT

Word Count: 114     Puzzle Score: 197     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.73

Key Terms: Acceleration, Accuracy, Addition, Amplitude, Analytical, Atmospheric, Coefficient, Component, Deceleration, Deformation, Delta, Equilibrium, Free, Frequency, Friction, Graphical, Gravity, Harmonic, Head, Height, Hooke, Kinematic, Kinetic, Magnitude, Motion, Normal, Oscillate, Pendulum, Period, Periodic, Precision, Projectile, Pythagorean, Range, Resistance, Restoring, Resultant, Scalar, Slope, Speed, Speedometer, Static, Tail, Trajectory, Uncertainty, Vector, Vector, Velocity

Selected Additional Terms: Air, Cyst, Die, Document, Earth, edu, Euro, Galaxies, Jupiter, Mega, Mu, PET, Peta, Pi, Right, Saturn, Sodium, Toxic, Tungsten, Zn

High School Physics Crosswords Series Two: Conservation + at TPT

Puzzles 6-10 bundled and discounted.

6. Circular and Rotational Motion at TPT

Word Count: 122     Puzzle Score: 187     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.53

Key Terms: Acceleration, Alpha, Amplitude, Angle, Angular, Arc, Centrifugal, Centripetal, Circular, Curvature, Distance, Dynamics, Equilibrium, Force, Frequency, Friction, Hooke, Kilogram, Kinematics, Lever, Mass, Meter, Newton, Normal, Omega, Oscillate, Period, Radian, Range, Rise, Rotational, Run, Scalar, Second, Slope, Spin, Tension, Theta, Thrust, Torque, Trajectory, Uniform, Universal, Vector, Velocity, Weight

Selected Additional Terms: AAAS, Acute, AIDS, Ape, BB, Be, CCD, Charge, Circular, CPR, Ear, Earth, Galileo, Grand, Gravity, Huron, Jupiter, Li, Mars, Micro, Nano, Neptune, NSF, NY, Observation, Odds, Orbital, Pd, Pearl, PhD, Pluto, Proton, Qi, Radio, Relativity, Resistance, Resultant, Rotates, Salt, Saturn, SETI, Speed, Starburst, Symptom, Te, Theory, Titan

7. Newton's Law of Gravitation at TPT

Word Count: 117     Puzzle Score: 172     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.47

Key Terms: Acceleration, Accuracy, Angular, Aphelion, Arc,Centrifugal, Centripetal, Circular, Copernican, Curvature, Dynamics, Eccentricity, Einstein, Equilibrium, First, Force, Frequency, Geocentric, Gravitational, Gravity, Heliocentric, Kepler, Kinematics, Lever, Mass, Newton, Perihelion, Period, Planetary, Position, Precision, Principle, Ptolemaic, Rotational, Scalar, Second, Slope, Spin, Tangent, Third, Torque, Tycho, Uniform, Universal, Vector, Velocity, Weight

Selected Additional Terms: Acre, Ag, Apogee, Arch, Bq, CAH, DNA, Error, Gas, Greenland, HDL, Hybrid, Jupiter, Mars, Meter, Milli, Mu, Nano, Net, Nm, Oval, Peta, Pi, Pluto, Queen, RGB, Rh, Rough, RSS, Saturn, SHM, Sixty, Sn, Star, Straight, Tail, Time, Uranus, UV

8. Momentum at TPT

Word Count: 117     Puzzle Score: 183     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.56

Key Terms: Angular, Aphelion, Change, Conservation, Copernican, Dynamics, Eccentricity, Einstein, Elastic, First, Force, Freefall, Friction, Geocentric, Gravitational, Gravity, Harmonic, Heliocentric, Impulse, Inelastic, Inertia, Isolated, Kepler, Magnitude, Mass, Momentum, Newton, Oscillate, Perfectly, Perihelion, Period, Planetary, Point, Position, Ptolemaic, Recoil, Scalar, Second, Theorem, Third, Torque, Tycho, Universal, Vector, Velocity

Selected Additional Terms: Amazon, Atom, Catalyst, Cookie, Ear, Earth, Ellipse, Equals, Giga, Gram, Higgs, IBM, Iceland, iOS, Jupiter, Mega, Mercury, Meter, Moon, Neptune, Optics, Penicillin, Pi, ROM, RSV, Run, Saturn, SEO, Snow, States, Sum, Sun, Tail, Tc, Vinyl

9. Work, Energy, and Simple Machines at TPT

Word Count: 122     Puzzle Score: 186     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.66

Key Terms: Advantage, Angular, Axle, Change, Complex, Conservation, Efficiency, Elastic, Energy, Fd, Friction, Gravitational, Ideal, Impulse, Inclined, Inelastic, Input, Isolated, Joule , Kinetic, Lever, Mass, Mechanical, mgh, Momentum, mv, Output, Perfectly, Point, Potential, Power, Pulley, Rate, Recoil, Screw, Simple, Steam, Theorem, Torque, Velocity, Watt, Wedge, Work

Selected Additional Terms: Acronym, Acute, Air, Alloy, CME, DC, Drive, Experiment, First, Flex, Force, Ga, Geocentric, Gravity, He, Heliocentric, HTTP, Hypatia, Instantaneous, ISS, Jupiter, Kilowatt, Leaf, Mercury, Mumps, Ne, Neptune, Os, Pacific, Pluto, Podcast, Ruler, Static, Synonym, Tera, Time, Venus, Volume

10. Special Relativity at TPT

Word Count: 112     Puzzle Score: 179     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.60

Key Terms: Binding, Centripetal, Change, Conservation, Contraction, Defect, Dilation, Efficiency, Einstein, Elastic, Energy, Ether, Factor, Force, Galileo, General, Geocentric, GPS, Gravitational, Heliocentric, Impulse, Inertia, Inertial, Joule, Kinetic, Light, Mass, Mechanical, Momentum, Morley, Newton, Normal, Oscillate, Period, Planetary, Postulate, Potential, Power, Proper, Reference, Relativistic, Relativity, Rest, Simultaneity, Special, Theorem, Universal, Velocity, Watt, Weight, Work

Selected Additional Terms: ACL, Atlantic, Atom, CTE, Datum, Erie, GOES, Inertial, Juneau, MPEG, Nb, Neptune, Net, Ni, Ovum, Pi, Radio, Screw, Sea, Six, Speed, State, Sum, Swarm, United, Vein, VLSI, Watt, Web, XML

High School Physics Crossword Series Three: Heat and Thermodynamics at TPT

Puzzles 11-12 bundled and discounted.

11. Thermal Energy, Heat, and Work at TPT

Word Count: 116     Puzzle Score: 186     Cross/Word ratio: 1.60

Key Terms: Absolute, Atom, Boiling, Capacity, Celsius, Condensation, Conduction, Conservation, Convection, Degree, Deposition, Efficiency, Equilibrium, Fahrenheit, Freezing, Fusion, Gas, Heat, Input, Ionization, Joule, Kelvin, Kinetic, Latent, Mass, Melting, Output, Phase, Plasma, Point, Potential, Power, Radiation, Recombination, Scale, Specific, Sublimation, Temperature, Thermal, Vaporization, Velocity, Water, Watt, Work, Zero

Selected Additional Terms: Acceleration, Angstrom, Circle, Earth, Earthling, Eon, EV, Eye, GIF, Giga, Gold, Hadron, Hot, Ice, IG, Impulse, Inventor, Iowa, Jr, Jupiter, KHz, Lie, Linear, Neptune, Nova, Order, Oslo, Pad, Pair, Plant, Potential, Power, RNA, SHM, Sting, Stop, Tesla, Tiger, Uranus, Venus, Wuhan

12. Thermodynamics at TPT

Word Count: 118     Puzzle Score: 176     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.49

Key Terms: Absolute, Boiling, Boltzmann, Capacity, Celsius, Condensation, Conduction, Convection, Cyclical, Degree, Deposition, Efficiency, Engine, Entropy, Equilibrium, Expansion, Fahrenheit, First, Freezing, Fusion, Gas, Heat, Ideal, Internal, Ionization, Kelvin, Latent, Melting, Mercury, Metabolism, Pascal, Phase, Photosynthesis, Plasma, Point, Pressure, Pump, PV, Radiation, Recombination, Scale, Second, Specific, Sublimation, Temperature, Thermal, Transduction, Vaporization, Water, Zero, Zeroth

Selected Additional Terms: Air, API, Atom, Borneo, Brahe, CMOS, EKG, Energy, Force, Hz, IR, Jupiter, Lab, Mars, mm, Pi, Rate, SOH, Spider, SSD, Ulna, Up, Uranus, URL, USB, Wave, Zn

High School Physics Crosswords Series Four: Sound and Light at TPT

Puzzles 13-17 bundled and discounted.

13. Waves and Their Properties at TPT

Word Count: 117     Puzzle Score: 177     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.51

Key Terms: Amplitude, Antinode, Constructive, Crest, Deformation, Destructive, Displacement, Earthquakes, Energy, Equilibrium, Force, Frequency, Harmonic, Hooke, Inertia, Inversion, Joule, Kinematics, Kinetic, Longitudinal, Magnitude, Mass, Mechanical, Medium, Nodes, Oscillate, Period, Periodic, Position, Power, Pulse, Reflection, Refraction, Richter, Seismic, SHM, Speed, Standing, Superposition, Tension, Transverse, Trough, Vector, Velocity, Wave, Wavelength, Weight, Work

Selected Additional Terms: Area, Au, Bison, Bouquet, Cs, DESI, Earth, Fluid, Forearm, Forest, FPS, Higgs, Hz, Image, Instantaneous, Jupiter, Kr, Llm, Mirror, Ohm, Pacific, Pi, Qi, Rain, RNA, Saturn, Spider, STEM, STP, Titan, Uniform, UV, Venus, Volt, Zero

14. Sound at TPT

Word Count: 116     Puzzle Score: 174     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.5

Key Terms: Amplitude, Antinode, Audible, Beat, Compression, Constructive, Crest, Damping, Decibel, Destructive, Doppler, Earthquakes, Energy, Frequency, Fundamental, Harmonics, Hearing, Intensity, Inversion, Lambda, Level, Longitudinal, Loudness, Mechanical, Medium, Natural, Nodes, Overtones, Period, Periodic, Pitch, Power, Pulse, Rarefaction, Reflection, Refraction, Resonance, Resonate, Richter, Seismic, SHM, Sonic, Sound, Standing, Superposition, Transverse, Trough, Velocity, Wave, Wavelength

Selected Additional Terms: Ampere, Atlas, Au, Dissect, DNA, Earth, Eureka, Evolve, Ga, Hand, ICE, Igloo, Mega, Melanin, Meter, ml, Mo, Model, Nautilus, Neural, Object, Persia, Pi, POTUS, Precision, Remedy, Rh, RNA, Toxic, Unit, Velocity, Water, Work

15. Light at TPT

Word Count: 112     Puzzle Score: 166     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.48

Key Terms: AM, Amplitude, Beat, CFL, Damping, Decibel, Destructive, Doppler, Electric, Electromagnetic, Emr, Fm, Frequency, Fundamental, Gamma, Hearing, Illuminance, Infrared, Intensity, Interference, Inversion, Led, Light, Loudness, Lumens, Luminous, Lux, Magnetic, Maxwell, Mechanical, Medium, Microwave, Natural, Periodic, Pigment, Pitch, Polarized, Pulse, Radio, Rarefaction, Reflection, Refraction, Resonance, Sonic, Sound, Superposition, Transverse, Ultraviolet, Velocity, Wave, Wavelength, Xrays, Year

Selected Additional Terms: Accuracy, Astronomy, Average, CGI, Cloud, Eardrum, Fd, IR, Laser, Lava, LCD, Leap, LIGO, Mars, mm, MPEG, mv, Neon, Np, Realistic, SHM, Slope, Stable, Tan, TNT, Trajectory, Ulna, UV

16. Mirrors and Lenses at TPT

Word Count: 124     Puzzle Score: 174     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.40

Key Terms: Aberration, AM, Angle, Central, Chromatic, Concave, Converging, Convex, Critical, Diffused, Dispersion, Diverging, Electric, EMR, FM, Gamma, Hyperopia, Illuminance, Incidence, Incident, Index, Infrared, Interference, Internal, Laser, Law, LED, Length, Lens, Light, Luminous, Magnetic, Maxwell, Microwave, Mirror, Myopia, Pigment, Point, Polarized, Radio, Radius, Ray, Real, Reflection, Refracted, Refraction, Snell, Specular, Ultraviolet, Virtual, Xrays, Year

Selected Additional Terms: Andes, Biology, Bq, CAH, CCD, Co, Cornea, Corona, DM, DNA, Elementary, Force, Heat, Heliocentric, ICE, Ion, Ir, JD, Manga, Mars, Nano, Neutron, Nile, No, PE, PGP, pH, Pi, Pico, Pluto, RGB, RNA, Saturn, Shark, Si, Teach, Trek, Unit, Venus, Work

17. Diffraction and Interference at TPT

Word Count: 118     Puzzle Score: 183     Cross/Word Ration: 1.55

Key Terms: Aberration, Chromatic, Concave, Converging, Convex, Critical, Diffraction, Diffused, Dispersion, Diverging, Gamma, Grating, Huygens, Incidence, Incident, Index, Infrared, Interference, Interference, Internal, Iridescence, Laser, Law, LED, Length, Lens, Light, Magnification, Maxwell, Microwave, Mirror, Monochromatic, Monochromator, Point, Polarized, Radio, Ray, Rayleigh, Real, Reflection, Refracted, Refraction, Resolution, Snell, Specular, Ultraviolet, Virtual, Wavefront, Xrays, Year

Selected Additional Terms: AM, Arsenic, Bismuth, Cancer, CD, Earth, Einstein, Engine, Eurasia, Fe, First, GIF, Graph, Hand, HEIF, Ice, Indigo, Insomnia, IR, Iris, km, Ovary, QED, Roof, ROV, sec, Skin, Sonic, SOS, Tangent, Teflon, Tera, Tremor, Umami, UV, Vein, Venus, Xe, XLV

High School Physics Crosswords Series Five: Electricity and Magnetism at TPT

Puzzles 18-20 bundled and discounted.

18. Static Electricity at TPT

Word Count: 115     Puzzle Score: 185     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.61

Key Terms: Absolute, Capacitor, Capacity, Celsius, Conductor, Conservation, Copernican, Coulomb, Dielectric, Einstein, Electron, Elektron, Energy, Fahrenheit, Farad, Field, Field, First, Gas, Geocentric, Gravitational, Gravity, Heat, Heliocentric, Induction, Insulator, Inverse, Kelvin, Kepler, Kinetic, Newton, Nucleus, Phase, Planetary, Plasma, Polarization, Potential, Proton, Ptolemaic, Radiation, Second, Semiconductor, Specific, Temperature, Test, Thermal, Third, Torsion, Tycho, Universal, Volt, Xrays, Zero

Selected Additional Terms: API, Arctic, Camera, CDC, Circle, Cos, Crater, Cyan, Exponent, Eye, Hg, Infrared, Jupiter, Kinematics, Land, Lens, Mars, Mercury, MN, Nuclear, Optics, Rough, Saturn, Sec, SIMM, Sin, Sixty, Static, STEM, TIR, TNT, Uranus, Wave

19. Electric Circuits at TPT

Word Count: 118     Puzzle Score: 175     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.48

Key Terms: AC, Alternating, Ampere, Capacitor, Circuit, Conductor, Conservation, Conventional, Coulomb, Current, DC, Diagram, Dielectric, Direct, Electron, Elektron, Energy, Equivalent, Farad, Field, Franklin, Induction, Insulator, Inverse, Joule, Nanometer, Nonohmic, Nucleus, Ohm, Ohmic, Parallel, Polarization, Potential, Power, Proton, Resistance, Resistor, Semiconductor, Series, Silicon, Steady, Test, Torsion, Volt, Watt

Selected Additional Terms: Air, AQI, Aspirin, Au, Cd, Copper, CPU, Darwin, Equilibrium, EV, Experiment, Free, GIF, HDTV, Ion, Isotope, Jupiter, Loudness, Lux, Methods, mm, Neon, PDF, Phase, Pi, Ptolemy, RCS, Sirius, SOH, Static, Storm, Tangent, Titan, TOA, Uniform, Universal, Uranus, Visual, Zinc

20. Magnetism at TPT

Word Count: 118     Puzzle Score: 174     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.47

Key Terms: AC, Alternating, Ampere, Capacitor, Circuit, Conductor, Conservation, Conventional, Coulomb, Curie, Current, DC, Diagram, Dielectric, Dipole, Direct, Domain, Electric, Electromagnet, Electromagnetism, Electron, EMF, Energy, Equivalent, Faraday, Ferromagnetic, Field, Flux, Franklin, Generator, Induction, Insulator, Inverse, Joule, Magnetized, Nanometer, North, Nucleus, Ohm, Parallel, Permanent, Pole, Potential, Proton, Resistance, Resistor, Right, Series, Silicon, Solenoid, South, Steady, Test, Volt

Selected Additional Terms: Ag, Am, amu, Attract, Cos, Cs, Digit, Drag, Egypt, EPA, Europium, Giga, Hz, Ice, La, LLM, Mars, Mass, Mercury, Minute, Neuron, Node, Oil, Oxygen, Pico, Quantity, Rain, ROV, Sin, Sn, Sound, Spine, STEVE, Tan, Ten, TIR, Unum, URL, Venus, VPN, Water

High School Physics Crosswords Series Six: Modern Physics at TPT

Puzzles 21-23 bundled and discounted.

21. The Quantum Nature of Light at TPT

Word Count: 108     Puzzle Score: 152     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.41

Key Terms: AM, Blackbody, Catastrophe, Compton, Concave, Converging, Convex, Critical, Debloglie, Diffraction, Dispersion, Diverging, Duality, Electric, EMR, FM, Frequency, Gamma, Grating, Huygens, Incidence, Incident, Index, Infrared, Interference, Internal, Iridescence, Kinetic, Laser, LED, Length, Lens, Luminous, Magnetic, Maxwell, Microwave, Mirror, Momentum, Photoelectric, Photoelectron, Photon, Photovoltaic, Planck, Point, Polarized, Quantized, Quantum, Radio, Ray, Rayleigh, Refracted, Resolution, Ultraviolet, Wavefront, Wavelength, Xrays

Selected Additional Terms: Area, Beach, Cm, Corona, DNA, Exa, Exam, Eye, Faraday, HDL, Hg, Ice, Ion, KE, LAN, Metric, Oersted, pH, Pi, Polio, River, Scalar, Sixty, Sound, Tail, Tan, Ton, UFO, Volume

22. The Atom at TPT

Word Count: 119     Puzzle Score: 187     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.57

Key Terms: Activity, Alpha, Anger, Atomic, Becquerel, Beta, Blackbody, Chain, Compton, Constant, Critical, Dating, Dating, DeBroglie, Decay, Duality, Effectiveness, Electric, Energy, Excited, Fission, Fraunhofer, Fusion, Gamma, Geiger, Ground, Halflife, Heisenberg, Hydrogen, Isotope, Kinetic, Liquid, Mass, Momentum, Nucleons, Photon, Planck, Planetary, Proton, Quantized, Quantum, Rad, Radioactive, Radioactivity, Radiopharmaceutical, Roentgen, Rutherford, Rydberg, Scintillator, Strong, Tagged, Therapeutic, Transmutation

Selected Additional Terms: ACL, Alpha, Asia, CCD, CDC, CFC, Circle, Cu, DC, DND, EFT, Frequency, Heat, HTTP, Kr, Light, Mars, Monkey, Moon, Moving, Mu, Net, Odyssey, Reactor, Rise, Saturn, Stem, Ten, Tera, Theory

23. Particle Physics at TPT

Word Count: 121     Puzzle Score: 184     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.52

Key Terms: Annihilation, Antimatter, Bang, Baryon, Beam, Bottom, Carrier, Charmed, Chromodynamics, Color, Cyclotron, Down, Electrodynamics, Electroweak, Epoch, Era, Everything, Fermi, Feynman, Flavor, Gluons, Grand, Graviton, Hadron, Higgs, Inflationary, Lepton, LHC, LIGO, Mass, Meson, Negative, Neutral, Pair, Photon, Physics, Pion, Positive, Positron, Quark, SLAC, Standard, Strange, Strong, Superforce, Synchrotron, Top, Up, Weak, Yukawa

Selected Additional Terms: AI, Binding, Bismuth, Catastrophe, CM, CO, Delta, Diffraction, GOES, GW, Halflife, Helium, Hermes, HTML, ICE, Inert, Inertia, IRL, Laser, Ma, MM, MP, Newton, Photoelectric, Pi, Pico, Planetary, Plasma, Potassium, Qi, Quantum, Radioactive, Rhino, Rubidium, Sea, Stable, Theorem, TIR, Tusk

BONUS PUZZZLE

Mostly Measures at TPT

Word Count: 121     Puzzle Score: 178     Cross/Word Ratio: 1.49

Word List: AC, Acceleration, Ache, Alpha, Ampere, Angle, ASAP, Beta, Beyonce, Blog, Bun, Candela, Candy, Capacitance, cc, Charge, City, Co, Colorado, Comet, Coulomb, Coyote, Cramp, Cranium, Cub, Current, Delta, Density, Deoxyribonucleic, Dr, Earth, Echo, Elements, Elephant, Energy, Epsilon, Farad, Field, Fin, Flux, Force, Ford, French, Frequency, Gamma, Ham, Inert, IRL, ISS, Jet, Joule, Jupiter, Kelvin, Kilogram, Kyoto, LA, Lambda, Leg, Length, Lion, Mass, MBA, Mercury, Meter, Mole, Momentum, Mu, Newton, NFL, NGO, OAS, Ohm, Omega, Once, Opposite, Organ, Oslo, Pacific, Parallel, Pascal, Phi, Phoebe, Pi, Plus, PM, Power, Pressure, Psi, Purple, Radian, Resistance, RGB, Rho, Rio, Rooster, RSS, Sara, Scuba, Second, Shoe, Sigma, Sneezy, Speed, Tau, Taylor, TB, Tehran, Temperature, Tesla, Theta, Time, Torque, Tube, Uber, Venus, Volt, Voltage, Watt, Wavelength, Weber

The Invisible Shield

This 4-part PBS series tells the story of public health and epidemiology through the lens of the pandemic.

THE INVISIBLE SHIELD at TPT

The Invisible Shield, a four-part documentary series, reveals a little-known truth: that public health saved your life today and you probably don’t even know it. But while public health makes modern life possible, the work itself is often underfunded, undervalued, and misunderstood.

1. THE OLD PLAYBOOK at TPT

History repeats itself. It’s not the first time the world has had to deal with a pandemic, and the push highlights how the public health sector had to go back to work.

2. FOLLOW THE DATA at TPT

Data has been an essential public health tool since at least the seventeenth century. Helping the world understand and mitigate the spread of disease, data has helped us make sense of the threats to our collective health.

3. INOCULATION & INEQUITY at TPT

Public health officials face disinformation, skepticism of science, and distrust in government as they begin vaccinating the public against COVID. Historical injustices and inequities lead to apprehension, forcing public health to refine its approach.

4. THE NEW PLAYBOOK at TPT

With all the challenges the public health sector faces, and life expectancy declining, how will a committed next generation of public health workers going overcome these obstacles?

Secrets in Your Data

There is content that you're supposed to teach when you are a classroom teacher. Usually the product of academic content standards, textbook adoptions, and other processes that take years to develop.

Sometimes new topics arise that students should probably know something about. Maybe pandemics or emerging and widely-adopted technology. I would classify personal data privacy and security as such a topic. Involved technology (phones and websites) seem universally adopted among students. Data brokerage is a $200-million dollar/year industry. Data theft/identity theft/ransomware are growth industries. 

We can wait until approved curriculum is developed and adopted, of course. Or we can at least provide a baseline awareness of the issues. This 15 May 2024 episode of NOVA provides an opportunity.

SECRETS IN YOUR DATA at TPT

Whether you’re on social media or surfing the web, you’re probably sharing more personal data than you realize. That can pose a risk to your privacy – even your safety. But at the same time, big datasets could lead to huge advances in fields like medicine. Host Alok Patel leads a quest to understand what happens to all the data we’re shedding and explores the latest efforts to maximize benefits – without compromising personal privacy.

Astronomy Crossword Puzzles [OpenStax-aligned]

Who needs astronomy crossword puzzles? I have no idea! But if you do, I have some you might like. When I make crossword puzzles, I include appropriate chapter key terms; everyone does. But where most creators stop there, I take things further. I fill those awkward empty spaces (large enough to grow farm crops). I bring in non-key terms from the chapter, terms from previous chapters, science, math, general knowledge, pop culture, and randomness. That's among The Lessons of Phyz Advantages.

The good people at OpenStax have published Astronomy 2e on their site. Chapters 2-30 have key terms. So I am making crossword puzzles for those chapters. This post will grow one puzzle at a time until all puzzles are finished. Some chapters have very few key terms; those chapters are combined into a single puzzle.

My favorite use case is to distribute the next chapter's crossword puzzle on unit test day. That is, give out the Chapter 2 puzzle on Chapter 1 test day, and so on. It's nice for keeping the room quiet while students finish the test at different times from one another. You might naturally worry that students wouldn't have a chance with a puzzle filled with as-yet uncovered vocabulary. And you'd be right, except that I filled my puzzle space gaps with words they already know from previous chapters or general knowledge. Often the acronyms and initialisms are, well, very straightforward. The clue for NIST is National Institute for Science and Technology. I gave students the duration of the next unit to complete the puzzle.

2. Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy at TPT [Free]

Word Count: 107   Word Crosses (Puzzle Score): 166

Key terms: Accelerate, Apparent, Astrology, Celestial, Circumpolar, Cosmology, Ecliptic, Epicycle, Equator, Geocentric, Heliocentric, Horizon, Horoscope, Parallax, Planet, Poles, Precession, Retrograde, Year, Zenith, Zodiac

Selected additional terms: Aquarius, Arabic, Aries, Astronomy, Cancer, Capricornus, Constellation, Copernicus, Diameter, Flat, Galileo, Geyser, Hubble, Jupiter, Leo, Libra, Magnet, Mars, Mercury, Meteor, Milky, Mol, Moon, Nasa, NIST, Nobel, Ophiuchus, Optics, Owl, Pauli, Pisces, Planetarium, Polaris, Ptolemy, Renaissance, Sagittarius, Scorpius, Sputnik, Starlink, STP, Sun, Syene, Taurus, Uranus, Virgo, Voyager

All puzzles include an online option for tech-savvy users who can upload files to a server space. Here's a sample of an online version.

https://phyz.org/crosswords/02-Birth

3. Orbits and Gravity at TPT

Words: 105   Puzzle Score: 162

Great American Eclipse

As I post this, the "Great American Eclipse" is days away. NOVA released this video today as eclipse chasers are nervously monitoring cloud-cover forecasts and making their way toward the path of totality.

I worked a bit furiously to craft this question set for those who might find it useful.

GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE at TPT

Explore the spectacular cosmic phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. In April 2024, the Moon’s shadow is sweeping from Texas to Maine, as the U.S. witnesses its last total solar eclipse until 2044. This extraordinary astronomical event is plunging locations in the path of totality into darkness for more than four minutes–nearly twice as long as the last American eclipse in 2017. Learn how to watch an eclipse safely and follow scientists as they work to unlock secrets of our Sun–from why its atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface, to what causes solar storms and how we might one day predict them.

Participants include Amir Caspi, Craig DeForest, Jon Ghahate, Kelly Korreck, Judith Nakamura, Tyler Nordgren, Hakeem Oluseyi, Mathieu Ossendrijver, Sam Parks, Anjali Piette, Jenna Samra, Grant Tremblay, Anjali Tripathi, and Michael Wong.

For additional eclipse content, see:

ECLIPSE OVER AMERICA (2017)

TOTAL ECLIPSE (pre-2017)

From Ann Arbor to Asteroids

ANN ARBOR (c. 1984) I settle into booth in the recently opened food court area in the basement of the Michigan Union to work on a Physics 401 problem set. It's early afternoon, and I am fueled by a slice and a soda—sorry, pizza and a pop (this is Michigan!). The fellow undergrad preparing the square pizzas at Parcheezi is Phil Plait. And $2.85 was all you needed for that lunch. 

Later that evening, I visit my neighbor at the Mary Markley dorm to finish the 401 problem set. He's a year younger than me, and super brilliant. His name is Dan Durda and, like me, he can be found in the audience at the monthly AstroFest presentations produced by Jim Loudon. We attended those gatherings religiously!

SACRAMENTO (c. 1996) I'm a fan of Homicide: Life on the Street (predecessor to HBO's The Wire). The guy playing drug kingpin Luther Mahoney is Erik Todd Dellums. Many actors relish playing the bad guy, and Dellums is clearly eating up this role.

(2015) I've been asked to introduce Michio Kaku at the Sacramento Speakers Series. It's a rare non-wedding, non-funeral occasion for which I am willing to dress up. I do my best to hype him up for the large auditorium crowd.

BOZEMAN, 2024. I'm writing a question set to accompany Asteroids: Worlds that Never Were, an episode of How the Universe Works. The episode is narrated by Erik Todd Dellums. It features astronomy experts Dan Durda, Phil Plait, as well as physicist Michio Kaku.

ASTEROIDS: WORLDS THAT NEVER WERE at TPT

From icy worlds with more fresh water than Earth to flying mountains of pure metal, asteroids shaped our past and promise much for the future. Could these enigmatic space rocks hold the key to how life in the Universe arises and is extinguished?

Comets: To Catch a Frozen Wanderer

In 1996 and 1997, comets had quite a moment. Comet Hyakutake and Comet Hale-Bopp garnered attention worldwide. Some people used the passage of Hale-Bopp for nefarious purposes that ended tragically.

I recall Hale-Bopp being much more celebrated, but Hyakutake being much more beautiful in the sky.

In any case, comets can burst onto the scene with little notice. What are they all about? We begin with an episode from How the Universe Works. Comets: Frozen Wanderers provides a nice, comprehensive lesson on the nature of comets. It holds out hope that ESA's Rosetta/Philae mission will be able to get up close and personal with a comet.

PBS's To Catch a Comet picks up the story from there, providing a moment-by-moment account of Rosetta's rendezvous with Comet 67P. A great story with challenges and nail-biting moments.

As always, I have questions.

COMETS: FROZEN WANDERERS at TPT

We follow the odyssey of a comet as it sails through space, watching every move as it evolves from a chunk of ice and rock into an active nucleus engulfed in a gaseous haze. What we learn is a revelation; comets are even more mysterious than we imagined.

TO CATCH A COMET at TPT

On November 11, 2014, billions of kilometers from Earth, a spacecraft orbiter and lander did what no other had dared to attempt: land on the volatile surface of a comet as it zooms around the sun at 67,000 km/hr.

Hunt for the Oldest DNA

Sometimes the inspiration for a scientific breakthrough is an apple falling from a tree. Sometimes it's a race between a train and a light wave. And sometimes ...

Sometimes it's a dog pooping in the rain.

Sequencing DNA that's more than a million years old was thought to be impossible. And it was. Until it wasn't. Breaking that barrier is a story of scientific perseverance laced with frustration, anti-bullying vibes, and real consequences of failing to solve an as-yet insoluble problem. Success was never guaranteed, and it came at a price.

But what a story it is! Watch the program. If it's something that works with your curriculum, consider using the question set with students. It's written with them in mind: to keep them actively engaged without ever boring them. (And welcome to NOVA's 51st season!)

HUNT FOR THE OLDEST DNA at TPT

For decades, scientists have tried to unlock the secrets of ancient DNA. But life’s genetic blueprint is incredibly fragile, and researchers have struggled to find DNA in fossils that could survive millions of years. Then, one maverick scientist had the controversial idea to look for DNA not in fossils or frozen ancient tissue – but in dirt. Join the hunt as scientists decipher the oldest DNA ever found, and reveal for the first time the genes of long-extinct creatures that once thrived in a warm, lush Arctic.

Participants include Tom Gilbert, Ross Macphee, Mikkel Pedersen, Maanasa Raghavan, Maureen Raymo, Alexandra Rouillard, Natalia Rybczynski, Astrid Schmidt, Beth Shapiro, Niobe Thompson, and Eske Willerslev.

For more DNA content, see:

Human Nature

Secrets in our DNA

Eclipse Over America (2017)

The Great American Eclipse of 2024 is April 8. And that's coming right up. I made it to totality in 2017, so I understand the addiction that eclipse chasers feel. I knew exactly what was going to happen, when it was going to happen, where it was going to happen, and why it was going to happen.

None of that mattered when it actually happened. An expletive passed my lips involuntarily. 

I'll chase totality in April, as well. In any case, NOVA produced Eclipse Over America in conjunction with the 2017 eclipse. For reasons that elude me, they have not posted the episode to YouTube, nor have they made it available to PBS Passport subscribers. Amazon's Prime Video seems to have it available for purchase, though they have it mislabelled as a season 17 episode. Apple iTunes seems to need you to buy they whole season (44) to access the episode. I found a streaming copy of it on Facebook.

ECLIPSE OVER AMERICA on TPT

On August 21, 2017, millions of Americans witnessed the first total solar eclipse to cross the continental United States in 99 years. As in in total solar eclipses, the moon blocked the sun and revealed its ethereal outer atmosphere—its corona—in a wondrous celestial spectacle. While hordes of citizens flocked to the eclipse’s path of totality, scientists, too, staked out spots for a very different reason: to investigate the secrets of the sun’s elusive atmosphere. During the eclipse’s precious seconds of darkness, they gathered new clues on how our sun works, how it can produce deadly solar storms, and why its atmosphere is so hot. NOVA investigates the storied history of solar eclipse science and joins both seasoned and citizen-scientists alike as they don their eclipse glasses, tune their telescopes, and revel in the eclipse that spanned the continent.

Participants include Amir Caspi, Nicky Fox, Holly Gilbert, Don Hassler, Jason Kalirai, James Klimchuk, Bill Murtagh, Tyler Nordgren, Mathieu Ossendrijver, Jay Pasachoff, Steven Tomczyk, and Constantine Tsang.

The Universe's Total Eclipse is an older eclipse documentary. And I have questions.