I’ve been rather busy with my academic duties lately and haven’t had much time to update my blog with new science and fiction posts.  Because of this, I almost completely missed the fact that August 14th marked the 7th anniversary of this blog!  My first post was on August 14th, 2007, with the title “Educate or bust,” based on the name of an obscure Robert E. Howard story.  That title still captures the spirit of what I try to do here at “Skulls in the Stars,” and what I hope to continue doing in the future.

With this in mind, here’s a few teasers of posts I’m planning and working on for the next few months.  This list is partly to keep people intrigued, but also to keep me inspired!

• A physics demonstration in which I attempt to generate “frozen lightning” in the form of a Lichtenberg figure.
• A somewhat poetic look at the importance of early physics discoveries related to heliocentrism through the writings of its biggest advocates.
• A history of physics post about the very first “vortex of light” discovered in the 1950s, and the strange optics that inspired its discovery.
• An in-depth post about the most important physics research that nobody ever talks about.  (This one has been in the works for years.)
• A “how-to” discussion about my favorite social media platform, twitter, and how to use it in a productive way.
• The optics of impossibility!  Many things that traditionally were thought to be literally impossible in optics have now been demonstrated experimentally (usually with some important caveats).  This post will survey how these discoveries are changing the technological possibilities with light.
• A look at one of the strangest planets in the Solar System, and probably not the one you think.
• Some blogging about my own research into invisibility and cloaking, after I finally get the papers written and published!
• More blog posts about the history of electricity and magnetism, particularly in the 19th century.  The first of these I’ve been looking at is the work of Heinrich Lenz.

I’ve got lots of ideas — I just need to find the time to work on them!  I’d also like to thank everyone who follows or subscribes to my blog for your interest.  Hopefully, the next seven years will be as fun as the first!