Archive of Writings
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Dragon*Con, Day 0
I'm debating posting my adventures to Astronomy Cast Live. I haven't decided yet. What I have decided is it's going to be a great convention. I get to spend 4 days talking sciene to science fiction, fantasy fiction and science geeks. This is a fun audience, and I get...
Dragon*Con, T minus Two Days and Counting!
Dragon*Con is descending and I need to go pack so this will be brief. I get in late Thursday night and am looking forward to hanging with the Bad Astronomer and the Skepticallity crew. There will also be a table just for the International Year of Astronomy! Check us...
GLAST = Fermi, Another Chicago Prof becomes a Space Telescope
As you may have heard by now, the Gamma-ray Large Area Synoptic Telescope has been renamed from GLAST to Fermi, as in Enrico Fermi (1938 Nobel Prize Winner). This simple act appears to have brought both the NASA and Sonoma websites to all but a halt, but as of 10:30pm...
Science as Collaboration
I'm sure I've spoken on this before, and I'm sure I'll speak on this again. Science is an act of collaboration. While there are the lone geniuses among us out there making independent breakthroughs in mathematics and thought, these brilliant minds would be nothing if...
Let it Begin (again)
Monday is the first day of a new semester. I'll be teaching just one class this semester (the rest of my time is going to IYA), second semester calculus based physics for Scientists and Engineers. This will be my first time teaching this course, although I've taught...
Blue Collar Scientist, You’re still my Twitter Friend
I just logged into twitter through it's actual website so I could edit who I was following. Scanning down the list of names I saw the friendly, sunglass wearing face of BlueCollarSci. My heart stopped for a moment. In real life BlueCollarSci was Jeff Medkeff, an...
Anecdotal Evidence versus Statistics
One of the running jokes in physics/astronomy departments is that astronomers consider 4 instances of anything as statistically significant. In fact, the story goes, two points is enough to define a trend, and 1 is enough to form a theory. Take for instance our solar...
SDSS Live!
Chris Lintott is currently up in Chicago at a meeting on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Check out his live coverage on Astronomy Cast Live!
Carnival of Space
Get your taste of space over at Next Generation with this week's Space Carnival.
My Summer Vacation off the Grid
For the past 5 days I've been in the middle of New Hampshire staying with some old friends. About 5 years ago they bought a bunch of acres on top of a small mountain in New Hampshire. It was empty land with nothing more than a logging road and a clearing. At the time...