One would think that in a week of an unseasonably large nor’easter and an earthquake, we might be a little wary of finishing it off with a total solar eclipse. But, it is the last time this phenomena will be in New England until 2079, so there’s also little else we are thinking of, portents and precedents aside.
So Mr. Universe, Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed, clues us into some of the big scientific discoveries made from research conducted in the small window of totality, including Einstein’s theory of relativity and the discovery of helium. Plus, he theorizes what we might learn from the one happening today.
Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster, brings us words adjacent to the eclipse including some idioms related to the heavenly body, and we get a bit sad with the origins of the word itself.
And, we get into a great resource for your kids to discover the occurrence as well. Lindsay Patterson and Marshall Escamilla talk about all kinds of cool things about eclipses in their most recent episode of "Tumble: Science Podcast for Kids." We also get to hear their song about it and, as a bonus, hear about their upcoming episode about the confluence of Cicadas, another once in a lifetime event.
And Monte and Kaliis took the day to go to the path of totality themselves. It was a bit of an unexpected adventure, but was it worth it? Total-ly.
