Cosmic Variance was a collaborative

weblog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

discussing

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...

, and other topics, written by JoAnne Hewett, Mark Trodden, Sean Carroll,

Risa Wechsler Risa H. Wechsler is an American cosmological physicist, Professor of Physics at Stanford University, and Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. She is the director of the Kavli Institute for Partic ...

, Julianne Dalcanton, Clifford Johnson, John Conway, and Daniel Holz. It was the successor to Carroll's earlier blog Preposterous Universe, which began in early 2004 and ran through much of 2005. The blog's name came from the

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

concept of

cosmic variance Cosmic Variance may refer to: * Cosmic variance, in cosmology, the statistical uncertainty inherent in observations of the universe at extreme distances * Cosmic Variance (blog), a collaborative weblog discussing physics, astrophysics, and othe ...

. Cosmic Variance rapidly become "undoubtedly the most popular blog written by physicists." In 2006, Nature reported that it was the fourth most popular science blog and one of only five blogs by scientists in the 3500 most popular blogs. As of July 26, 2007, Cosmic Variance had a

Technorati Technorati is a search engine and a publisher advertising platform. Technorati launched its ad network in 2008. In 2016, Synacor acquired Technorati for $3 million. The company's core product was previously an Internet search engine for search ...

authority of 1001 and rank of 2277. In 2008, the blog became part of the

Discover magazine ''Discover'' is an American general audience science magazine launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It is currently owned by LabX Media Group. History Founding ''Discover'' was created primarily through the efforts of ''Time'' magazine e ...

website. Most writing on Cosmic Variance focused on modern physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, at a level accessible to the interested non-scientist. However, topics of discussion ranged widely, including science and religion, science journalism, higher education, and politics. Several discussions on Cosmic Variance gained attention in the print media, including a discussion on women in science that compared physicist Lisa Randall to

Jodie Foster Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. Foster started her career as a child actor before establishing herself as leading actress in film. She has received List of awards and nominations re ...

and a post by John Conway about his discovery of a "bump" in

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel electric charge, charged particles to very high speeds and energies to contain them in well-defined particle beam, beams. Small accelerators are used for fundamental ...

data that turned out not to be caused by the

Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...

. When the engagement of Carroll to science writer

Jennifer Ouellette Jennifer Ouellette is an American science writer and editor. Career Ouellette's website describes her as a "recovering English major who stumbled into science writing quite by accident as a struggling freelance writer in New York City." Acco ...

was first announced on his blog, the story was picked up by both the New York Times and the prominent scientific journal

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

.Nature 444, 526 (30 November 2006) Cosmic Variance hosted a number of guest bloggers, including

string theorist In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...

Joseph Polchinski Joseph Gerard Polchinski Jr. (; May 16, 1954 – February 2, 2018) was an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Biography Polchinski was born in White Plains, New York, the elder of two children to Joseph Gerard Polchinski Sr. (19 ...

reviewing

Lee Smolin Lee Smolin (; born June 6, 1955) is an American theoretical physicist, a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo, and a member of the graduate faculty of th ...

's book '' The Trouble With Physics.''

References

External links

Cosmic Variance
Science blogs {{internet-publish-stub