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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. -
Category Archives: History of science
Quinine, dog pee, and… optics? (1852)
Every once in a while I come across an off-hand comment that immediately makes me need to know more. Recently, I’ve been researching the history of light polarizers, and turned to a paper1 by Edwin Land, the scientist who developed … Continue reading
The Man of Numbers, by Keith Devlin
Book 9 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! Opted to switch to some history of science and mathematics to mix things up… Some books in my collection were things that caught my attention at the time … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Mathematics
Tagged art, book review, books, History, renaissance
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1844: Mayer mentions his work on conservation of energy
As noted in a previous post, I’ve started translating a collection of correspondence of the amazing German physician Julius Robert Mayer, who around 1840 traveled to Indonesia as a ship’s doctor and along the way discovered and elucidated, for the … Continue reading
Posted in History of science
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More on Mayer and Tyndall (1862)
I’ve previously written about the amazing story of Julius Robert Mayer, the physician — not physicist — who first conceived of the concept of conservation of energy, and how he was then discredited by the British scientific community in favor … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
Tagged climate, energy, History, Religion, science
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Ms. Adventure, by Jess Phoenix
Book 22 of 26 books for 2024! I made my secondary goal for the year, considering I fell short of my original goal. However, for 2025, I think I’ll aim for 30 books, to push myself… One thing I love … Continue reading
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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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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1928: E.H. Synge invents near-field microscopy
It is often the case in science that the human imagination can outpace our technical abilities, and the result is that many remarkable inventions are conceived and their basic principles laid out long before anyone has the capability to construct … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics
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The discovery of ultraviolet light
As some of you may know, I’ve been working on a textbook on Electromagnetic Optics for a year now, and am near the end of the process. In finishing it, I wrote an introductory chapter that reviews the whole electromagnetic … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics
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Memories of Emil Wolf
2024 marks the 65th anniversary of a significant milestone in optics: the publication of Principles of Optics by Max Born and Emil Wolf, a comprehensive book on physical optics that has been cited some 78,000 times in the scientific literature … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics, Personal
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