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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
Raft, by Stephen Baxter
Book 16 of 26 books for 2024! Still aiming for 20. There’s a series of works published by Orion Publishing Group known as SF Masterworks, and it has been going since 1999 and so far has nearly two hundred unique titles. … Continue reading
Posted in Science fiction
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The Opener of the Way, by Robert Bloch
Book 15 of 26 books for 2024! Still aiming for 20. Valancourt Books, of who I am a huge fan of, continues to impress with quality editions of quality authors. Recently, they have started reprinting the works of horror master Robert … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Lovecraft
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Life Lessons From Historical Women, by Eleanor Morton
Book 14 of 26 books for 2024! Still aiming to get to at least 20 for the year, which would be a triumph considering this year. The first thought that I had when I finished reading Eleanor Morton’s Life Lessons … Continue reading
Posted in History, Women in science
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My tips for scientific conference presentations
This semester, I decided to replace the final exam in one of my upper-level graduate courses with a short 15 minute presentation on a scientific paper related to the course topic. To give the students some guidance, I provided a … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Physics
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Hanbury Brown and Twiss and their impossible interferometer (1956)
Update: fixed a mistake in my numbers for telescope resolution, which I had worse by a factor of 10. Science is in general intended to be a serious business, but every once in a while one comes across some serious … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics, Physics
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Electromagnetic Optics available for pre-order!
Let me just share a short note here that my Electromagnetic Optics textbook is now available for pre-order, to be published in March 2025! The link to the IoP Publishing site is here. The official description of the book: Light … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Personal
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Alley, by Junji Ito
Book 13 of 26 books for 2024! Fighting to complete most of my objective, in spite of life throwing me a lot of tough curveballs. I’ve spent a significant amount of time talking about the work of Junji Ito, a … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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The Book of Iod, by Henry Kuttner
Book 12 of 26 books for 2024! Let’s see if I can get to 50% read by the end of the weekend… I have long been a fan of the work of Henry Kuttner, who was perhaps the most versatile … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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Aliens: Phalanx, by Scott Sigler
Book 11 of my 26 books for 2024 goal! Still gonna try to make it to 26! Sometimes I come across a book premise that is so intriguing that I snap up the book almost as a reflex action. Such … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction, Horror, Science fiction
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Halloween Treats 2024: Revenants!
Every year since I’ve started this blog, I’ve published a few classic open access stories of horror for the Halloween season! In recent years, I’ve started to make a theme for each year. This year, the theme is “revenants”: spirits … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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Skulls in the Stars 