At 7.30pm on Monday night there was a ‘Question Time’ event held in the Greenbank Lecture Theatre of the NAM 2007 venue. The format was four speakers sat in a casual arrangement on stage being asked questions which were submitted previously via email. The audience were invited to give views and opinions too. The image... Continue Reading →

After arriving via the train (changing at Crewe - why is it always Crewe?) I registered at the UK National Astronomy Meeting held in Preston by the Royal Astronomical Society at around 11.30am. This put me an hour early for lunch and two and half hours early for any actual talks. I was, incidentally, also... Continue Reading →

Greenbank Building Originally uploaded by ttfnrob. Obviously not vietNAM but the UK’s National Astronomy Meeting. This is my first NAM and so far it’s so-so. There have been interesting talks and I have met some interesting people. However so far I would call it fun or jolly. Basically every year the UK’s astronomy community gathers... Continue Reading →

Boing Boing, I do so love your random photos. (Link)

Look at the picture above carefully (click on it for a larger version if it helps). Do you see all the small circles? There are over a thousand of them. Well each one used to be a house. A circular mud-like structure with a straw roof. A family used to live in that house. Then... Continue Reading →

I don’t know how they found out about it but someone at Uni today showed me this rather funny Google Maps result. Ask for directions from somewhere in the USA to somewhere in Europe and you are told how to do it, without flying. I searched for Cardiff to New York and if you check... Continue Reading →

The video above is the live feed from justin.tv an experiment in web video created by Justin, the star of the ‘show’ and three of his friends. In an effort to start up a video streaming company they decided to prove how easy it was to broadcast live video to the web. To do this,... Continue Reading →

Magnet Levitates Originally uploaded by ttfnrob. In last week’s lab we had some more fun with liquid nitrogen. This time we used it to cool a ceramic superconductor (i.e. not a metal one) and then floated a magnet on top of it. The result in shown in the image above. What your seeing is a... Continue Reading →

I listen to a lot of music. On my iPod and on my laptop you will find a vast array of recently played tracks in one playlist (smart or otherwise) or another. My tastes are usually somewhere between formerly-mainstream, alternative and American soft rock. However I also like a few other oddities (Buffy musical anyone?).... Continue Reading →

Dydd G?yl Dewi yn y Labordy Ffiseg Originally uploaded by huwwaters. I don’t speak Welsh but assume this says something like ‘daffodil that was frozen in nitrogen and then crushed during first year physics lab’. I know that because I crushed and froze it myself and this photo was taken by one of the lab... Continue Reading →