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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
George Gabriel Stokes in love! (1857)
Been very busy the past few weeks with work, house buying and selling, and life in general. Catching back up on blog posts; here’s a bit of sweetness connected to a prominent physicist. With the weather finally turning nice at … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Silliness
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The Kaye effect after dark!
I’ve talked in some detail before about the Kaye effect, in which a shear-thinning fluid such as shampoo or liquid soap can be made to “bounce.” Well, I did one final experiment with the Kaye effect, in order to show … Continue reading
Posted in Physics
2 Comments
The Giant’s Shoulders #59 is out!
I hereby declare that the 59th edition of The Giant’s Shoulders, the history of science blog carnival, is up at Something by Virtue of Nothing! This edition, centered around the theme of the Antikythera Mechanism, includes posts about: Did Isaac Newton … Continue reading
Posted in General science, Science news
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All about rainbows, double rainbows, circular rainbows!
Do not all charms fly At the mere touch of cold philosophy? There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture; she is given In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
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Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers
This post continues a long-neglected series of posts about classic novels of science fiction and horror that were adapted into movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Years past, I talked about John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos and The Day of … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Science fiction
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Physics demonstrations: Chladni patterns
A good demonstration of a physical phenomenon should be both insightful and exciting. Sometimes, a demonstration succeeds at both so well that it is practically awe-inspiring. Such is the case, for me, with the demonstration of Chladni patterns, exotic and … Continue reading
Posted in Physics, Physics demos
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Physics demonstrations: cloaking device?
I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog talking about the optics of invisibility, both hypothetical and actual. Though a number of forms of invisibility have been considered in both science and fiction for over a hundred years, the … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics, Physics demos
7 Comments
John Blackburn’s The Face of the Lion
I won’t have many more of these to announce in the future (I swear!), but I wanted to point out that another book by John Blackburn has been released recently that contains an introduction by me — The Face of … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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J.B. Priestley’s Benighted
Valancourt Books, traditionally specializing in fiction of Edwardian era and older, has recently started printing new editions of excellent but forgotten 20th century novels. I, of course, have written introductions for a number of the books of John Blackburn (Bury … Continue reading
Posted in Mystery/thriller
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Skulls in the Stars 