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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
#365papers, part 3!
I’ve joined a group of folks on Twitter who have vowed to read roughly a paper a day for an entire year, and will summarize my reading here occasionally. Part 1 can be read here, and part 2 can be … Continue reading
Dr. SkySkull and the mystery of the subluminal superluminal light!
References in a scientific paper are supposed to answer questions, not raise them, but sometimes they inadvertently create a minor mystery for the reader. A few weeks back, I blogged about the curious phenomenon of subluminal vacuum beams of light, … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, Optics
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Robert Aickman’s Dark Entries
It took me far longer than it should have, but I have finally read a collection of short stories by Robert Aickman (1914-1981). Though the 1960s and 1970s, he published 48 supernatural tales, some of which are acknowledged as classics, … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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#365 papers, part 2!
I’ve joined a group of folks on Twitter who have vowed to read roughly a paper a day, and will summarize my reading here occasionally. Part 1 can be read here. Links are provided for those with university access who … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Personal
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So what’s up with that “slower than light” light?
Over the years, there has been a lot of hype about the possibility of “superluminal” light: namely, light than can travel faster than the vacuum speed of light meters/second, which is overwhelmingly considered the absolute speed limit of the universe. I’ve talked … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
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Null-field radiationless sources: even more invisible than invisible?
I spend a lot of time talking about invisibility on this blog, as it is a subject near and dear to me: I did my PhD work, completed in 2001, on early historical forms of invisibility. I like to tell … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics
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#365papers, part 1!
At the beginning of this year, my friend Jacquelyn Gill (who blogs over at The Contemplative Mammoth) suggested an interesting resolution for academics like us: read at least one scientific paper a day for the entire year. This has been … Continue reading
Posted in Physics
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John Blackburn’s Dead Man’s Handle
This post marks a minor personal milestone: with the book featured in it, I have now read all of John Blackburn‘s published works. I put off reading this one for quite some time for a reason that I’ll explain at the … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Mystery/thriller
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The Burnaby Experiments, by Stephen Gilbert
I really should be writing about novels other than those published by Valancourt Books, and I will, but they have released so many eye-catching books in recent years that I’ve had a hard time staying away. Most recently, I read their … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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The mystery of the magnetic train
This past week, thanks to Laughing Squid and other sources, a lot of people watched and were amazed by this simple demonstration of electromagnetism in action. It is billed as the “world’s simplest electric train,” and it is almost certainly … Continue reading
Posted in Physics, Physics demos
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