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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
Skating a rollercoaster?
I know people will call me nuts, but this looks like fun: via The Daily Mail, we learn that an extreme sports enthusiast took a high-speed ride on a rollercoaster — on specially designed roller skates! An adrenaline junkie has … Continue reading
Posted in Sports
2 Comments
Hummingbirds move fast!
Less than 24 hours after putting up a new hummingbird feeder, we have this: This one is from a little later in the day: We’ve got a lot of birds visiting our yard these days, so much so that we’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Animals
7 Comments
Lord Dunsany’s Pegana
A bit over a month ago, I decided to read a few of Lord Dunsany’s plays after reading Lovecraft’s glowing review of them in Supernatural Horror in Literature. The plays are wonderfully eerie and capture the spirit of ancient myths … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction, Lovecraft
4 Comments
CAREER award craziness!
Sorry the blog has been quiet recently. I’m in the midst of putting the finishing touches on an NSF CAREER award proposal, and that’s been taking up all my mental energy. The proposal is due on Wednesday, so I’ll be … Continue reading
Edward Lee’s Ghouls
When I was a teenager, I used to read a lot of horror novels, some good, many very bad. In fact, I gave up on reading horror for a number of years due to my frustration. After starting the blog, … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
4 Comments
The Giant’s Shoulders #13: A day at the fair!
Welcome to the 13th edition of The Giant’s Shoulders, the history of science blog carnival! This carnival marks the one year anniversary since its inception, so I thought I’d take us somewhere special and historical — the fair! Not just … Continue reading
Posted in General science, History of science
19 Comments
That’s roughly a ‘2’ with 16 zeros after it…
Via Huffington Post, we get the following bit of banking absurdity: A New Hampshire man says he swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and was charged over 23 quadrillion dollars. Josh Muszynski … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?
3 Comments
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
Skulls in the Stars 