Paul Krugman is now a famour economist, but many years ago, he was “an oppressed assistant professor, caught up in the academic rat race.” So, he did what any good academic would do in that situation: he wrote a silly paper to cheer himself up. In this case, a paper discussing the issues that arise… Continue reading Interstellar Economics
Category: Astronomy
Career Alternatives for Physics PH.D.’s
Physics World has an interview with Alastair Reynolds, who was trained as an astrophysicist but is now a full-time SF author: How does your physics training help with your writing? Less than people imagine. I think the most important attribute for a science-fiction writer is to be fascinated by science — in all its manifestations.… Continue reading Career Alternatives for Physics PH.D.’s
Dark Matter in Sixty Seconds
Via email, a plug for the newish site 60 Second Science, which is a project from Scientific American built around a podcast featuring one-minute explanations of, well, science. The email was specifically highlighting their new project, a set of video podcasts going by the name of Instant Egghead. The first video (also the only one… Continue reading Dark Matter in Sixty Seconds
Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Explained?
I have a bunch of science news sources in my RSS feeds, and every evening, I scan through the accumulated articles to try to figure out what physics-related stories there are to talk about. Sometimes, it’s hard to find anything, but other days, you get stories that lead to four press releases at EurekAlert (one,… Continue reading Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Explained?
Requiem for the Space Age
The New York Times is commemorating the 50th anniversary of Sputnik with a huge clump of articles about, well, space. I’m a little surprised that I haven’t seen more said about these– they turned up in my RSS feeds on Tuesday, but I’ve been both busy and slightly ill, and haven’t gotten around to blogging… Continue reading Requiem for the Space Age
Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions
Physics World has a somewhat puzzling news article about the solar system: Physicists have known for some time that the motions of Pluto and the inner planets are chaotic. This means that a small external force on a planet could, over time, cause a major change in the position of the planet within its orbit.… Continue reading Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions
Dark Skies and Security
I’m in a Department of Physics and Astronomy, so several of my colleagues are astronomers. We also have a rather nice on-campus observatory, used for student research projects. Unfortunately, the combination means that we have a running argument with the rest of the campus regarding lights. The rather nice observatory is basically useless if there… Continue reading Dark Skies and Security
The Story of Dark Matter
Speaking of science explanations in SF, or at least science explained by SF authors, there’s a very nice history of dark matter at SFNovelists.com by Mark Brotherton (via Tobias Buckell): The story of dark matter starts back in the 1930s with Fritz Zwicky, a brilliant but difficult Caltech astronomer, who was studying galaxy clustering. Galaxies… Continue reading The Story of Dark Matter
The Loss of Night
I remember the last time I saw the milky way. I was at my aunt’s house in the foothills of the Sierras, and late at night the dense river of stars emerges. But that is still not the true milky way, or so I hear. And, in more urban areas, the detritus of our incandescent… Continue reading The Loss of Night
Sky, Full of Stars
If you’re on the west coast tonight and are willing to stay up late or wake up early, you have the chance to see the Aurigid meteor shower. This shower is fairly unique because it arises from a comet with a period of around 900 years. Some people have even claimed that there’s a chance… Continue reading Sky, Full of Stars