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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: Personal
One of my papers is top-ten cited in JOSA A!!??
Just a short note: on Twitter, Professor Andrew Dawes (thanks Andrew!) drew my attention to a recent email that the Optical Society of America sent out, listing the top ten most cited articles in the Journal of the Optical Society of America A … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
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What a scientist looks like! (Also on Scientific American)
One of the neat things that has evolved out of the recently-concluded Science Online 2012 is the new site “This is What a Scientist Looks Like“. Founded by the excellent Allie Wilkinson, the site solicits photos and descriptions of scientists … Continue reading
Posted in General science, Personal
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Science Online 2012: The Music Video!
As you may have heard, two weeks ago I was attending Science Online 2012, a meeting of online science communicators and one of the most fun events I’ve ever attended! Period. To commemorate the event, Carin Bondar of PsiVid and … Continue reading
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Science Online 2012: Weird and Wonderful Stories in the History of Science
This is the first of a series of posts summarizing my observations and experiences at Science Online 2012, which I attended last week. When I was starting out as a student of physics, most of the stories I heard … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Personal
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Weird Fiction Monday: The Brotherhood of Lightning
It’s time for Weird Fiction Monday, when I post stories that I’ve written — both new and old — for the entertainment (hopefully) of my readers! As always, I note that I haven’t done extensive editing of the tales here, … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Personal
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My 1000th skydive!
Well, I finally did it — I made my 1000th skydive! On the 18th of December, 2011, my friends came out to join me in celebrating this milestone. The video is posted below. We had done a practice jump (number … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Sports
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Open Lab 2011: the finalists announced! (and I’m one of them!)
I got a spot of nice news yesterday: the finalists for Open Lab 2011 were announced, and one of my posts will be included! For those who are unfamiliar, The Open Laboratory is a collection of the “best” science writing … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Science news
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I’m a direct academic descendant of Galileo?
This is really neat — a friend and colleague of mine at the University of Toronto worked up the academic pedigree of our (mutual) graduate advisor Emil Wolf, using data from the Mathematics Genealogy Project. In short, Emil is a … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, Personal
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Help out a science/history blogger!
Those of you who have been around the science and history blogosphere long enough have probably become familiar with the excellent work of John McKay, who writes both at his personal blog archy and at Mammoth Tales. The economy has … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
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Review of “Mathematical Methods” at Science After Sunclipse!
Just a quick bit of news: Blake Stacey has reviewed my textbook, Mathematical Methods for Optical Physics and Engineering, over at his blog Science After Sunclipse! Although he rightly busts my chops over a number of typos in the text … Continue reading
Posted in Mathematics, Personal
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