Astronomy/astrophysics
jstemwedel | December 21, 2009Here in the Northern Hemisphere (of Earth), today marks the Winter Solstice. Most people have some understanding that this means today is the day of minimum sunlight, or the longest night of the year. Fewer people, I think, have a good astronomical sense of why that is the case.
So, in honor of the solstice, let's do some old school astronomy. Really old school.
Let's consider the two-sphere cosmos:
To the ancients, it was perfectly reasonable to assume the earth is stationary. (Indeed, it wasn't until Galileo that there was a really persuasive argument that an Earth-in-motion was…
jstemwedel | October 20, 2009Back before I was sucked into the vortex of paper-grading, an eagle-eyed Mattababy pointed me to a very interesting post by astronomer Mike Brown. Brown details his efforts to collaborate with another team of scientists who were working on the same scientific question he was working on, what became of that attempted collaboration, and the bad feelings that followed when Brown and the other scientists ended up publishing separate papers on the question.
Here's how Brown lays it out:
You would think that two papers that examine the same set of pictures from the Cassini spacecraft to map…
jstemwedel | October 19, 2009Over at Starts with a Bang, Ethan Siegel expressed exasperation that Nature and New Scientist are paying attention to (and lending too much credibility to) an astronomical theory Ethan views as a non-starter, Modified Netwonian Dynamics (or MOND):
[W]hy is Nature making a big deal out of a paper like this? Why are magazines like New Scientist declaring that there are cracks in dark matter theories?
Because someone (my guess is HongSheng Zhao, one of the authors of this paper who's fond of press releases and modifying gravity) is pimping this piece of evidence like it tells us something.…
jstemwedel | July 17, 2009There's been a continuing discussion, in various online venues (including this blog), of Unscientific America, a book which notes the "demotion" of Pluto as an instance where the lessons the American public drew from the scientists' decisions may have diverged widely from the lessons the scientists would want the public to draw -- if they even thought about the possibility that the public was paying attention.
So, since the Free-Ride offspring were paying attention as the Pluto saga unfolded, I thought I should double back and see what their current thinking about it is.
If you've forgotten…
jstemwedel | June 11, 2009Over at Cosmic Variance, Julianne Dalcanton describes a strategy for scientific communication that raises some interesting ethical issues:
Suppose you (and perhaps a competing team) had an incredibly exciting discovery that you wrote up and submitted to Nature.
Now suppose that you (and the competing team) simultaneously posted your (competing) papers to the ArXiv preprint server (which essentially all astronomers and physicists visit daily). But, suppose you then wrote in the comments "Submitted to Nature. Under press embargo".
In other words, you wrote the equivalent of "Well, we've…
jstemwedel | April 21, 2009
I've mentioned before that I grew up in a family that was fairly captivated by the U.S. space program, especially the Apollo program that brought humans to the Moon. But as impressive as those manned missions to the Moon were, what did the Apollo program accomplish? Where are our moon-bases?
Orphans of Apollo, a documentary film by Michael Potter, explores what one group of space exploration enthusiasts did when NASA's commitment to the space age seemed to falter. By the mid-1970s, the Apollo program that put Americans on the moon was done, with two planned Apollo missions cancelled.…
jstemwedel | March 26, 2009
Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science: An Astronomer among the American Romantics
by Renée Bergland
Boston: Beacon Press
2008
What is it like to be a woman scientist? In a society where being a woman is somehow a distinct experience from being an ordinary human being, the answer to this question can be complicated. And, in a time and place where being a scientist, being a professional -- indeed, even being American -- was still being worked out, the complexities of the answer can add up to a biography of that time, that place, that swirl of intellectual and cultural ferment, as well as…
jstemwedel | March 13, 2009This week, in SprogCast #4, the younger Free-Ride offspring sings and then suggests that the song bears on the planetary subject of the very first Friday Sprog Blogging entry, which also involved singing.
You can download the sound file for the a cappella performance and the discussion that follows. The transcript is included below.
The song is the Jonathan Coulton composition, I'm Your Moon. The younger Free-Ride offspring sang the first verse and the chorus.
They invented a reason
That's why it stings
They don't think you matter
Because you don't have pretty rings
I keep telling you I…
jstemwedel | September 12, 2008Reader hp asks:
Do you (or your commenters) know what to look out for in a small-child-friendly telescope? My daughter (now aged 4.5) has been space-obsessed for over a year now, and I'd like to encourage her but am nervous of spending a lot of money on the wrong thing.
For those of you who look at the night sky with kids (or who once looked at the night sky while kids), what are your suggestions? What are the crucial features of a decent 'scope, and which of the bells and whistles are things you can live without (and without paying for)? How important do you think it is for a kid to be…
jstemwedel | September 5, 2008In a comment on another post, Blatnoi asks for my take on a recent news item in Nature:
An Italian-led research group's closely held data have been outed by paparazzi physicists, who photographed conference slides and then used the data in their own publications.
For weeks, the physics community has been buzzing with the latest results on 'dark matter' from a European satellite mission known as PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics). Team members have talked about their latest results at several recent conferences ... but beyond a quick flash of a…
jstemwedel | July 25, 2008Go to Cosmic Variance at once to read Julianne Dalcanton's musings on why spherical jerks (not the word she uses) are preferable to the asymmetric ones:
No one is surprised when a known, calibrated asshole acts up. We all just adjust the gain on our emotional response and carry on. I've been quite fond of many assholes through the years, and when I look back, the one trait they shared was that while they may have been ornery, they were at least predictable.
Go read the whole thing to explore the topology of the muppethuggers she's been having to deal with lately.
jstemwedel | November 8, 2007... despite the fact that I'm deeply suspicious of claims that getting the most votes is truly indicative of being the best.
Anyhow, the category in which your vote might make a real difference (here at the last minute) is Best Science Blog:
I'm a big fan of In the Pipeline, Bootstrap Analysis and Invasive Species Weblog (and I hear that "Pharyngula" guy is a good read), in terms of the maximization of quality and "electability", I urge you to vote for Bad Astronomy.
Cast your vote now, before it's too late!
jstemwedel | October 4, 2007Fifty years ago today, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, Earth's first artificial satellite. I don't remember it (because I wouldn't be born for another decade), but the "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" heard 'round the world left indelible traces on the fabric of life for my parents' generation, my generation, and for the subsequent generations, too.
Space was part of the terrain of our imagination for as long as I can remember -- after all, the sibling born right after me landed on Earth pretty much right before the Eagle landed on the moon, and my mom insisted on watching the moonwalk in the…
jstemwedel | August 24, 2007A reader made sure I saw this today. (Thank you, reader!)
From Brian May's website:
Yes. It's done, and after about 37 years, I am finally a doctor. The oral examination of my thesis, and of me, lasted about 3 hours, and then I retired with Prof Rowan-Robinson, for a few moments, for my two examiners to confer. After only a couple of minutes they called me back into the room and offered their hands in congratulations. Yes, my category was number 2. I understand pretty much nobody gets a 1st category - which is "This is perfect - here's your PhD."
Congratulations to Dr. May on a job well…
jstemwedel | August 3, 2007Today the BBC reports that Queen guitarist Brian May has submitted his doctoral dissertation in astronomy (titled "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud") at Imperial College, London.
Some theses take longer to write than others. May completed his after a 36 year gap.
Granted, during that gap he was kind of busy pursuing rock and roll.
But, as May notes, handing in the thesis is not the last step in his journey to complete his Ph.D. He still needs to defend that thesis:
The guitarist is scheduled to discuss his thesis with the examining board on 23 August, his spokesman said. The…
jstemwedel | July 17, 2007Congratulations to Rob Knop for sharing in this year's Gruber Prize in Cosmology!
The prize is sponsored by the Gruber Foundation and the International Astronomical Union (not always the favorite scientific organization in my household owing to the whole Pluto thing). Rob was a part of the Supernova Cosmology Project and a co-author of a 1999 paper (whose first author is Saul Perlmutter) that helped establish that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.
For those keeping track, the 2006 award went to John Mather and the COBE team, about whom I've blogged.
There's a bit of irony in…
jstemwedel | June 2, 2007The ScienceBlogs servers are undergoing some serious spa treatments this evening (Saturday, June 2nd, starting at 9PM EDT) to rejuvenate them and help them achieve inner peace.
Or something.
Their massage and facial package (or whatever) is projected to last about three hours, during which time the system won't be able to accept new comments. Jot them down on paper and get them in tomorrow!
In the meantime, via my mom, there's a cool streaming video you might want to check out of Nobel Prize winner John Mather giving a colloquium at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center on November 21, 2006,…
jstemwedel | November 27, 2006Robert Krulwich made my ride home today way more interesting than it had a right to be.
If you haven't heard it already, check out his piece on how to build your own universe. It includes implausible (but cute) sound effects for watermelons being squeezed into tiny little black holes.
The basic idea behind the DIY universe is to start small (with a tiny little black hole) and then harness a "repulsive force" to blow it up like a big inflatable raft (only moreso). Astrophysics folks are tempted by the non-zero probability that this could actually be done, not to mention the fact that getting…