The greatest scientific minds have struggled to understand black holes over the past century. In the face of many towering challenges, they now better understand these strange phenomena. This story describes how scientists have studied and detected black holes throughout the last century. As you read, consider the role of theories in making predictions, and how scientists interpret and respond to them.

One of the most pressing problems facing today’s astronomers and cosmologists is that of ‘dark matter.’ Given the prominent role played by dark matter in modern astronomy and cosmology, it’s important to understand the history of dark matter. This story examines the eccentric scientists Fritz Zwicky and Vera Rubin and how they concluded that dark matter exists.

Galileo’s pendulum laws, developed in the early seventeenth century, were one of the foundations of modern science. Christiaan Huygens later refined Galileo’s pendulum laws and was the first to use these refined laws in creating a pendulum clock. The construction of an accurate pendulum-regulated clock enabled the oblate shape of the Earth to be ascertained 350 years before satellites were launched.

Fred Hoyle’s idea of Nucleosynthesis successfully furthered scientists’ understanding of how the universe worked on large and small scales and furthered knowledge concerning the microphysics of stellar interiors. This story highlights how science requires both theory and observation and how it can benefit from competing theories.

This story describes how the pendulum has played a significant role in the development of Western science, culture and society– including the accurate measurement of time that utilized the experiments and observations made by Galileo Galilei in the seventeenth century.

On August 17, 1858, intercontinental electronic communication officially began with a ninety-eight-word message from Queen Victoria to American president James Buchanan across the first Atlantic cable. The leading scientific figure in the cable-laying mission was the mathematical physicist Professor William Thomson, later to become Lord Kelvin.

Louis Slotin was a Canadian physicist/chemist who took part in the Manhattan Project. He died of massive radiation poisoning after a criticality accident at Los Alamos. This story describes the accident and gives links to resources on radiation protection.