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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
“The X-Change Files” is up and running!
There’s a new science blog out there: The X-Change Files, which is the official blog for the Science & Entertainment Exchange. What, you may ask, is the Science & Entertainment Exchange? From their website, The Science & Entertainment Exchange is … Continue reading
Posted in Science news
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3quarks daily prize — vote for me! (please?)
There’s a new scienceblog prize being sponsored by 3quarksdaily. I have a number of posts submitted for voting, and the prize is $1000, a not insignificant amount. Like most blogging prizes, the first round amounts to a popularity contest — … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
2 Comments
A happy birthday to Brian Cox!
I couldn’t let June 1 go by without acknowledging the birthday of one of the coolest character actors around: Brian Cox! Brian has had a remarkable career and done many roles, including but not limited to: Agamemnon in Troy, the … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment
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Invisibility physics: can charged particles self-oscillate?
Time to return to my long-delayed series of posts on the history of invisibility physics! The first two posts were: Acceleration without radiation (1910), describing Ehrenfest’s arguments suggesting acceleration without radiation could be possible, Schott’s radiationless orbits (1933), describing G.A. … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Physics
5 Comments
Valancourt takes a stand against Proposition 8!
Valancourt Books, once again justifying why they’re one of my favorite small publishers, issued a press release in support of gay marriage following the California Supreme Court’s disappointing ruling upholding Prop. 8: To that end, from now until the end … Continue reading
“Sherlock Holmes” is a real film? Really?
I’ve known for a while that a new version of Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson, has been in the works. Via The Little Professor, I finally got to see the trailer: WTF? … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, Entertainment
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Henry Kuttner’s Thunder Jim Wade
Any time I see a book with Henry Kuttner‘s name on it, I pay attention — Kuttner was a masterful author who wrote some true classics of science fiction and fantasy, including one of my favorite stories of all time, … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure fiction, Robert E. Howard
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The National Naval Aviation Museum and a cute optical illusion
Bleah! I’m back from my trip to the Flora-bama area, but didn’t make any jumps — we were essentially weathered out Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday I’d had enough. Most of my jump friends had already bailed, and though … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Travel
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Another short hiatus!
I hate to have to do this so soon after my honeymoon break, but I’ll likely be going silent for a few days over the Memorial Day weekend: if the weather is good, I’ll be skydiving at the Florida/Alabama border … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
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What does negative refraction LOOK like?
My friend Personal Demon recently forwarded me an article that deals with a rather cute idea: Photorealistic ray tracing aids understanding of metamaterials. “Metamaterials” may be described roughly as materials with a man-made structure on the scale of nanometers which … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
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Skulls in the Stars 