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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
7 years of blogging!
I’ve been rather busy with my academic duties lately and haven’t had much time to update my blog with new science and fiction posts. Because of this, I almost completely missed the fact that August 14th marked the 7th anniversary … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
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Fred Hoyle’s “The Black Cloud”
I am utterly fascinated by active scientists who also write fiction, particularly science fiction. There have been more of them than the average person realizes, including physicist Robert W. Wood, who co-wrote The Man Who Rocked the Earth (1915) and The Moon-Maker … Continue reading
Posted in Science fiction
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Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods
Let me say this immediately: Emily Carroll’s work is amazing. Her work first came to my attention, as it did for many people, through an io9 post describing some of the best horror webcomics available. The post included a link … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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H.G. Wells’ stories about BUGS
Update: Added one more Wells bug story! This short post is something of a public service. Earlier today I saw some tweets from film critic Scott Weinberg referencing an urban legend related to the very silly 1977 Bert I. Gordon film Empire … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Science fiction
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Physics demonstrations: Geiger counter
Update: Fixed a couple of incorrect statements regarding cosmic rays and the radiation of uranium. Thanks to encephalartos for the corrections! In recent months, I’ve been diving wholeheartedly into learning how to build and design electronics. My ultimate goal is … Continue reading
Posted in Physics demos
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Cloaking from earthquakes?
There has been a lot of excitement among researchers about the science of invisibility over the past decade, and a variety of designs of invisibility cloaks have been suggested since the groundbreaking 2006 papers. I’ve talked a lot about invisibility … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility
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The Lost Skeleton Walks Among Us! (hopefully)
Proving once again that you can’t keep a good undead down, at least not the first or second time, it was recently announced that there will be a third film in the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (soon-to-be) trilogy! Being that … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment, Silliness
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The Giant’s Shoulders #72: The Seven Wonders
The 2nd century BCE marked an unusual milestone in the history of civilization. As the Greeks had conquered most of the civilized world, its citizens were more or less free to travel widely through Europe and the Middle East, to see … Continue reading
Posted in General science, History of science
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Help me help you!
Things have been rather busy and stressful at work over the past few weeks, in spite of the summer break starting, and I’ve consequently been neglecting the blog. I will be catching up again in the near future, but in … Continue reading
Posted in General science, Personal
2 Comments
Love is the Law, by Nick Mamatas
In my experience, Nick Mamatas’ novels are not pleasant to read — and I mean that in a good way. He is willing to dive wholeheartedly into ugly situations in his writing and challenge the reader with unhappy observations about the … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Mystery/thriller
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Skulls in the Stars 