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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. -
Author Archives: skullsinthestars
Manly Wade Wellman’s Who Fears the Devil?
For those who are new to Skulls in the Stars, my other major topic — other than science — is “weird fiction”, often but not exclusively of the late 1800s/early 1900s. “Weird fiction” is a term that broadly describes any … Continue reading
Posted in Weird fiction
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Archives are up!
I put in a little extra time this evening and managed to figure out how to transfer my blog archives over to the new site here! Everything seems to be present and accounted for, though I may have to check … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
2 Comments
Primate Diaries in exile!
This seems like a good time to remind folks about Eric Michael Johnson’s “Primate Diaries in Exile” tour! Since leaving Scienceblogs in the wake of PepsiGate, Eric has been “touring” various blogs and providing guest posts. He’s set up a … Continue reading
Posted in [Etc]
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Attack of the giant squid! (1874)
Last week, I ventured outside of my usual areas of expertise to discuss a paper I had stumbled across in a volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, dated 1790, “letter relative to the kraken”. This prompted … Continue reading
Posted in Animals, History of science
19 Comments
11 days until the “fools, failures and frauds” edition of The Giant’s Shoulders!
I have almost been negligent in pointing out that there’s only 11 days left before the deadline of the next edition of The Giant’s Shoulders history of science blog carnival! This is a special edition, hosted by scicurious, and is … Continue reading
Posted in [Etc]
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Weird science facts, March 28 – April 10
(I’ve been doing a daily “weird science fact” on Twitter, with the goal of doing a full 365 days of facts. The problem is that Twitter doesn’t allow one to search further back than 1 week! I’m going to keep … Continue reading
Posted in Weirdscifacts, [PhysicalScience]
2 Comments
ResearchBlogging editor's selections: Phytoliths, Hubble bubbles, computer-generated hypotheses, and plasma shields
“Dr. SkySkull” selects several notable posts each week from a miscellany of ResearchBlogging.org categories. He blogs at Skulls in the Stars. Past lives caught in the dust of trees. Alun at AlunSalt describes a little-discussed botanical and archaeobotanical phenomenon called … Continue reading
Posted in General science, Science news, [Etc]
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We’ve moved… to Scientopia!
********************* And now, for some big news — this blog is moving! Skulls in the Stars is relocating to be a part of a new blog collective, Scientopia.org! This collective consists of a number of ex-Sciencebloggers and a number of … Continue reading
Posted in General science, Personal
6 Comments
Optics basics: lasers!
One of my goals in blogging has been to run a series of posts covering the “basics” of optics, namely those concepts that form the basis of an understanding of the more advanced topics investigated by researchers today. Though I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Optics basics
9 Comments
The Discovery Place does optics!
This post involves a little bit of boasting! For the past month, the Discovery Place science museum in Charlotte has been displaying a small interactive optics exhibit targeted at 8-14 year-olds as part of their “Explore More Stuff” series. The … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Personal
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Skulls in the Stars 