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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: Physics
Barkla shows that x-rays have polarization (1905)
It is one of the quirks of scientific progress that many great experiments are forgotten as the things they demonstrate become common knowledge in the scientific community. A good example of this is the 1890 experiment of Otto Wiener, which … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
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Invisibility physics: can charged particles self-oscillate?
Time to return to my long-delayed series of posts on the history of invisibility physics! The first two posts were: Acceleration without radiation (1910), describing Ehrenfest’s arguments suggesting acceleration without radiation could be possible, Schott’s radiationless orbits (1933), describing G.A. … Continue reading
Posted in Invisibility, Physics
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Destroying the planet… with science!
When the Large Hadron Collider was fired up for the first time back in September, it caused much wailing and rending of clothes by people who were convinced that the device would create miniature black holes which would destroy the … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, History of science, Physics
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Who first suggested the nuclear atom?
Here’s a little obscure physics trivia for you: who first suggested that an atom might have a structure consisting of a positively-charged “nucleus” surrounded by orbiting electrons? The easy, and mostly correct, answer is Ernest Rutherford. In 1909, he supervised … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
7 Comments
Mr. Faraday goes wild — with atomic speculation! (1844)
Michael Faraday (1791-1867), whom I’ve talked about numerous times, has a reputation as being a bit of a theoretical lightweight, namely because he had little formal mathematical training. In spite of this, however, he had an ability to think abstractly … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
7 Comments
Levitation and diamagnetism, or: LEAVE EARNSHAW ALONE!!!
In one of my regular explorations of StumbleUpon I happened across a nice homemade demonstration of magnetic levitation on a page called spark, bang, buzz. The demonstration is adapted from a description at scitoys.com. The setup is illustrated schematically below: … Continue reading
Posted in Physics
28 Comments
Why no press on Y(4140)?
Earlier this month, I came across a healthy number of articles on the observation at Fermilab of a single top quark, produced by interactions involving the weak nuclear force. As a scientist who dabbled in particle physics in graduate school, … Continue reading
Posted in Physics
10 Comments
Michael Faraday, grand unified theorist? (1851)
At long last, I get to blog about the paper that first piqued my interest about the research of Michael Faraday! If you haven’t been following my Faraday posts, let me give a quick recap: Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was one … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
9 Comments
Faraday brings light and magnetism together (1845)
The more I read of Michael Faraday’s work, the more I am in awe of the scientist’s insights and abilities. As evidence of the remarkable intuition he had regarding the forces of nature, consider the following passage: I have long … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Optics, Physics
14 Comments
A physics history-mystery: magnetism from light?
As I’ve noted in previous posts, one of the fun things about researching historical scientific papers is the unexpected places the investigation can take you. Often a simple search on a straightforward topic will start a chain reaction of increasingly … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Physics
27 Comments
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