Ruby Ward - The Learning Hub

Stephen Hawking

Born in Oxford to academically inclined parents, Hawking grew up in St Albans, England. He attended University College, Oxford (B.A., 1962) and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (Ph.D., 1966). His early research, supervised by Dennis Sciama, focused on cosmology and singularities in space-time. At 21, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and given only a few years to live—a prognosis he defied for more than five decades.

Science Simplified

Quantum Theory

It begins with Max Planck, at the edge of the 20th century, staring at the problem of blackbody radiation — why hot objects emit light in specific patterns. He discovered that energy comes in packets, or quanta, like coins being dropped one by one into a jar rather than a continuous flow.

Astronomy & Space

The Habitable Zone

The Habitable Zone is the distance around a star where a planet is just right for water to exist as a liquid on its surface. Not boiling away. Not frozen forever. We call it many names: The Goldilocks Zone (not too hot, not too cold) The Life-friendly Zone The Water Zone

Science Simplified

Electronic Configuration

Every atom is like a miniature solar system.At its center lies the nucleus, dense and powerful.Orbiting it are electrons — tiny particles moving in organized layers called shells or energy…

Exoplanets

55 Cancri e

Category: Extreme Worlds | Discovered by NASA’s Spitzer & Other Observatories A World That Sparkles in Theory Imagine a planet where mountains might glitter, where the crust could be rich…

Astronomy & Space

Red Giants

In the main sequence stage (the long middle of a star’s life), a star fuses hydrogen into helium in its core. This fusion produces energy, which pushes outward against gravity’s pull. But once the hydrogen in the core runs out, fusion slows.

Science Simplified

Bosons

A boson is a particle that follows integer spin — that is, its spin is 0, 1, 2, and so on. This property makes it fundamentally different from matter-building particles (fermions), which have half-integer spins (like ½).

Exoplanets

Kepler-22b

At 2.4 times Earth’s radius, Kepler-22b sits in a curious category between rocky and gaseous worlds. Astronomers call these “super-Earths” or “mini-Neptunes,” planets that may possess thick atmospheres or vast global oceans.

Exoplanets

TOI-700 d

In early 2020, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) quietly made history. Among thousands of worlds it was scanning, it found a small, rocky planet orbiting a dim red-dwarf star about 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado.

Science Simplified

Electron Degeneracy Pressure

At its core, electron degeneracy pressure is just this: The pushback that happens when electrons are forced too close together, but can’t occupy the same position or energy state. It’s like trying to fit two people into one seat — they’ll automatically push apart because the rules of space won’t allow overlap.