I will blog my real time reaction to Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Seth MacFarlane's Cosmos remake. From the perspective of a relatively young astrophysicist and science educator.

7:20 PM CST: I love astronomy and astrophysics. When people would ask me what my dream job was since I was 16 I would say a theoretical astrophysicist. That was when I read "A Brief History of Time" by Prof. Stephen W. Hawking. Now I am at the entry level of the university or college educator career track. This reboot was made to appeal to a younger audience. So it will be interesting to see if I like this. If I don't, then it would not bode well.

In a paper posted to the arXiv a few days ago Stephen W. Hawking the preeminent expert on black holes argued quite effectively that given what we know about quantum gravity they don't exist. Quantum theory allows for matter and energy to escape from a black hole albeit very slowly, and scrambled up. In fact this process has been known for a very long time and is named "Hawking radiation".

The most scientifically interesting objects are not the bright blueish white ones in the center of the image, but the small reddish looking ones off to the sides.  Here's how and why. 

Predictions for 2014: No firm direct detection of dark matter, a better understanding of the Higgs boson, an announcement that Fermilab will live with a muon and neutrino related program, and a surprising and troubling reception for Neil DeGrasse Tysons Cosmos.  Those are my predictions for 2014.  Various collaborations are working very hard to detect dark matter and it seems we have tantalizing clues that something is there to find.  2014 will see more clues but not a discovery.  As we work on the Higgs we will understand it better.  I predict it will be well explained by the standard model of particle physics.  That Fermilab will have a new lease on life with a neutrino and muon based program in the future is a bit of a gamble.  Las