Author Archives: skullsinthestars

A personal academic milestone!

Posted on February 17, 2009 by skullsinthestars

Well, I’ve managed to graduate my first doctoral student!  I was confident in his ability to pass the dissertation defense, but I was still probably as nervous as he was.  Did I train him well enough?  Is his research sound … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal | 11 Comments

The Giant’s Shoulders #8 is up!

Posted on February 15, 2009 by skullsinthestars

The eighth edition of The Giant’s Shoulders is up at Greg Laden’s Blog, with a special emphasis on birthday boy Charles Darwin!  Many thanks to Greg for putting it together! The next edition will appear on March 16th at The … Continue reading →

Posted in General science, Science news | Leave a comment

Do optics like Darwin’s Dad!

Posted on February 12, 2009 by skullsinthestars

A few days ago, I was wondeirng what else I could contribute to the celebration of the birthday of Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution which forms the cornerstone of modern biology.   Of course, I’m an optical physicist, … Continue reading →

Posted in History of science, Optics | Leave a comment

Upcoming horror game: The Path

Posted on February 10, 2009 by skullsinthestars

Via StumbleUpon, I came across the website for a short horror game which will be released in March or April 2009:  The Path.  Produced by a small independent game company called Tale of Tales (and I mean small: two programmers), … Continue reading →

Posted in Entertainment, Horror | 4 Comments

Evolution’s influence in pulp fiction!

Posted on February 9, 2009 by skullsinthestars

This February 12th will be the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution which forms the cornerstone of modern biology.  Being that this birthday coincides nicely with the February 15th deadline of The … Continue reading →

Posted in History of science, Weird fiction | 1 Comment

A physics history-mystery: magnetism from light?

Posted on February 8, 2009 by skullsinthestars

As I’ve noted in previous posts, one of the fun things about researching historical scientific papers is the unexpected places the investigation can take you.   Often a simple search on a straightforward topic will start a chain reaction of increasingly … Continue reading →

Posted in History of science, Physics | 27 Comments

Duke’s Lovely Lemurland!

Posted on February 6, 2009 by skullsinthestars

There was one other event at the rapidly-receding-into-the-past ScienceOnline 09 that I wanted to blog about: my visit to the Duke Lemur Center!  Friday was a day for local trips to areas of interest, and I opted to go with … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals | 4 Comments

10 days until The Giant’s Shoulders #8!

Posted on February 5, 2009 by skullsinthestars

There are now ten days left until the deadline for the 8th edition of The Giant’s Shoulders, to be held at at Greg Laden’s Blog.  Entries can be submitted through blogcarnival.com or directly to the host blog, as usual!

Posted in General science, Science news | Leave a comment

The NSF online porn scandal!

Posted on February 3, 2009 by skullsinthestars

Finally I have a post topic (almost) as attention-getting as scicurious’ posts (see, for instance, here and here)!  It was reported a few days ago that an internal investigation by the National Science Foundation’s inspector general has revealed numerous cases … Continue reading →

Posted in ... the Hell? | 3 Comments

A. Merritt’s The Metal Monster

Posted on February 2, 2009 by skullsinthestars

Last week I discussed A. Merritt’s book The Moon Pool (1919), an adventure/horror novel showing genuine flashes of weird brilliance but marred by some rather stereotypical pulp conventions.  Merritt’s next novel, The Metal Monster (1920), is something else entirely!  Perhaps … Continue reading →

Posted in Horror, Lovecraft, Weird fiction | 5 Comments