Space, Science, Technology
For better or worse citizen science has become a fashionable term, but what is it and why do people like it? Citizen Science is a big component in a larger movement of public participation and engagement. There are makers and hackers everywhere and participation in science feels like it is increasing in general. This is... Continue Reading →
Plants aren't something I know very much about, but I remember the concept of turgor pressure from my GCSEs. Plant cells absorb water a different way to the cells in our bodies because they contain 'vacuoles' which our cells don't have. Plant cells also have cell walls, and as the vacuole absorbs more and more... Continue Reading →
A new journal begins today, Astronomy and Computing, covering the intersection of astronomy, computer science and information technology. This journal is desperately needed in my view and I wish it every success. The timing is interesting as many people at the intersection of these research areas are skeptical of old-style journals and the current state... Continue Reading →
The periodic mention of a 'supermoon' in the news cycle is starting to annoy me. A supermoon is simply not that much bigger than any other Moon! It's apparently just perceptible but by no means would you call it 'super'. Annoyingly though, observation of the so-called supermoon is wrapped up in another effect: the Moon Illusion. This means that... Continue Reading →
It doesn't matter what it is: today this was progress.
There's a cool paper on arXiv today in which an intrepid band of astronomers (I assume they were/are intrepid) search for exoplanets around the stars in the Pleiades using Subaru. Spoiler alert: they don't find any! However, it's an interesting look at how to hunt for planets and small/faint objects in general. They find 13 potential... Continue Reading →
The response my previous blog post about gender bias took me by surprise. Apparently if you talk about this stuff openly, people have a lot to say. More than 500 people have read the post on this site and more over at the Women in Astronomy blog. After posting it, I also emailed the upcoming... Continue Reading →
We’re running the fifth .Astronomy conference later this year in Boston. .Astronomy is a small (and awesome) conference for astronomers, where you must apply to participate. Although the tone is relaxed, spaces at the event are in short supply (there are only 50 places). You don’t have to talk at .Astronomy, and there are only a... Continue Reading →
A recent APOD featured this beautiful video of the Northern Lights over Norway. The opening shot is almost exactly how I saw the aurora in 2012. The Sun is at the peak of its activity and therefore the likelihood of seeing aurora (at either pole) are increased at the moment. http://vimeo.com/16917950
ESA’s Planck mission reported results today showing the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB, see below) in greater detail than ever before.Planck achieves this amazing view of the earliest light in the Universe by combining and cleverly cross-matching data across a combination of 9 different frequencies, ranging from 30-857 GHz. In this way they can remove foreground emissions... Continue Reading →