-
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
Simple fun with polarizers!
There is a lot of interesting optics going on around us every day that we are often unaware of! Some of these can be investigated with very simple and inexpensive tools, if one knows what to look for. For instance: … Continue reading
Posted in Optics
10 Comments
Basil Copper’s The Great White Space
H.P. Lovecraft not only introduced a fundamentally new genre of horror — “cosmic horror” — but inspired generations of writers who have built on his ideas and taken them in interesting new directions. Valancourt Books recently released a new edition … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Lovecraft
3 Comments
My favorite video games of all time (an incomplete list)
It is not much of an exaggeration to say that I’ve been playing video games since the beginning. I was one of those kids who spent tons of time in arcades throwing away quarter after quarter, and our family owned … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment
5 Comments
R.I.P. Richard Matheson (1926-2013)
Yesterday, I learned via Boing Boing that Richard Matheson, amazing author of speculative fiction, horror, and much more, died at the age of 87. One of my earliest blog posts was a “horror masters” post on Richard Matheson, who I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Science fiction
3 Comments
Ted Kosmatka’s Prophet of Bones
Sometimes a book comes out with an idea so compelling and intriguing and yet so simple that I wonder to myself why someone didn’t think of it ages ago! Such is the case when I first learned about Ted Kosmatka’s … Continue reading
Posted in Mystery/thriller
Leave a comment
The Giant’s Shoulders #60, part 1, is out!
The first part of the sixtieth edition of the history of science blog carnival The Giant’s Shoulders is up at The Renaissance Mathematicus! It is a look back at all 59 earlier carnivals (those that still exist!). Check it out! … Continue reading
Posted in General science, Science news
Leave a comment
Hiding from time? New design of a “temporal cloak” makes waves
Is it possible to make something invisible in time as well as in space? It is a fascinating question, a provocative question, a mind-boggling question… wait… what exactly does it mean to “make something invisible in time?” We’ll get to … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Optics
2 Comments
George Stokes on science and knowledge (1877)
One thing I’ve learned about the great scientists in history is that they are almost all well aware of the collaborative progressive nature of science. The most famous example of this is Isaac Newton’s quite-possibly-sarcastic “If I have seen further … Continue reading
Posted in History of science
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
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
Skulls in the Stars 