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The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. -
Monthly Archives: December 2008
The Crystal World, by J.G. Ballard
I’ve been slowly working my way through a huge collection of apocalyptic novels in preparation for another major blog post. Amazon has clued in to my bleak, weird taste in books and recommended The Crystal World (1966), by J.G. Ballard: … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Weird fiction
2 Comments
Home from the holidays!
Whew! The fiancée and I managed to get back home last night without any serious hassles. We’ve been simply exhausted, though, because our trip involved three legs: a starting visit with my family in Chicago for a couple of days, … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
3 Comments
A Patrick Swayze Christmas, by MST3K
I’ve got to continue the holiday tradition I started last Christmas; I therefore present, “A Patrick Swayze Christmas”: In the spirit of the season, I offer sincere best wishes and ‘get well soon’ to Patrick Swayze, who has been fighting … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment, Silliness
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Mr. Faraday’s (most excellent) experimental researches in electricity (1831)
Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867) was a master of electricity. His researches established may important results in electromagnetic theory, including some which are now so taken for granted that Faraday’s name is unfortunately not even thought of in connection with … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
28 Comments
Announcing the usual holiday slowdown…
Tomorrow, I head off into the great abyss… visiting relatives for the holidays! (Just kidding, everyone!) I’m going to try and post a few things of substance while I’m away, but I’m sure I’ll get less done than I expect. … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
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100k page view milestone!
I passed another blogging milestone several days ago — 100,000 total page views! The funny thing: on the 13th, I was still at 84,000. Then someone put my “Spot the math errors!” post on StumbleUpon (thanks for that, whoever did … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
5 Comments
The ‘true’ face of Cleopatra?
Via The Huffington Post, I found this fascinating article in The Daily Mail about recent efforts to reconstruct an image of the legendary Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. Cleopatra (69 BC – 30 BC) was the last Pharaoh of a (nearly) independent … Continue reading
Posted in Science news
8 Comments
The Giant’s Shoulders #6 is up!
The sixth edition of The Giant’s Shoulders is up at Rigorous Trivialities! If you would like to read about classic scientific research in multiple fields, follow the link. Many thanks to Charles for putting it together! The next edition is … Continue reading
Posted in General science, Science news
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Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race
I’ve described the work of Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) before. He was a highly prolific author who was highly influential in a number of fields, although his overly romantic prose is often ridiculed these days. Nevertheless, Bulwer-Lytton’s work survives to this … Continue reading
Posted in Weird fiction
3 Comments
Spot the math errors!
Via StumbleUpon, I came across this short text page which lists three mathematical ‘proofs’ which seem to violate common sense, listed below. The first is: The second one is: The third one is: Each of these proofs is (intentionally) wrong! … Continue reading
Posted in Mathematics
86 Comments
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