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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
900th skydive milestone!
Just a short note: yesterday I made three skydives, the third of which was my 900th! Up until the 1000th jump, skydivers tend to treat every 100th jump as a personal milestone. Due to work, I’ve been jumping quite irregularly, … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Sports
3 Comments
Lord Rayleigh vs. the Aether! (1902)
(Note: This is an attempt to get myself rolling on my long-ignored series of posts explaining Einstein’s theories of relativity. It’s also a really cool experiment in the history of science.) One of the most fascinating aspects of 19th century … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics, Relativity
10 Comments
Fletcher Pratt’s The Well of the Unicorn
Though I’m quite well read these days with respect to pulp fiction of the early 1900s, I’m much less familiar with those genres which followed, namely science fiction and fantasy. Occasionally, however, my literary wanderings cross my path with something … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction
3 Comments
Hollywood: Now officially out of ideas
Okay, now I think we can make this official: Hollywood is completely out of novel ideas. We started to suspect that this was the case when they started remaking very old classics such as King Kong, but at least there … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, Entertainment
17 Comments
Some musings on negative refraction
For a part of this past week I was at a workshop in California, and a lot of excellent theoretical and experimental researchers of metamaterials were present. One of the points stressed by many of them is the difference between … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
8 Comments
12 days until The Giant’s Shoulders #13!
This July 4th, if you’re celebrating the history of the United States, why not celebrate some history of science as well? There’s 12 days left until the deadline for The Giant’s Shoulders #13, which is the first anniversary edition of … Continue reading
Posted in General science, Science news
2 Comments
“Depression” isn’t just feeling bad
There’s been a healthy amount of discussion on the science blogs over the past few days about clinical depression, spurred on in large part by questions from aspiring academics concerning the best way to address the impact of their illness … Continue reading
Posted in Health
6 Comments
My interview on “A Blog Around the Clock”
As part of the run-up to ScienceOnline’10, Coturnix of A Blog Around the Clock has been running written interviews with the participants of the ’09 conference… including me! You can read my interview here.
Posted in General science, Personal
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Happy birthday to Ray Harryhausen!
It’s a good time of year for birthdays: today is Ray Harryhausen’s birthday! If you don’t know who Ray Harryhausen is, you should be ashamed of yourself — he’s the undisputed master of special effects. Harryhausen pioneered the use of … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment
2 Comments
Abramowitz and Stegun online!
Abramowitz and Stegun is a classic reference book which contains all sorts of information about special functions and their integrals. If you’ve ever needed to reference something on the road and don’t have your copy with you, you will be … Continue reading
Posted in Mathematics
7 Comments
Skulls in the Stars 