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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
Point Break: Mars!
My mind works in rather silly ways sometimes. Posting about skydiving soon after posting about avalanches on Mars, I got to thinking about how cool it would be to skydive off of a Martian cliff. Then I started to wonder: … Continue reading
Posted in Physics
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Relativity: Newtonian relativity
In the first post on Einstein’s relativity, we discussed the discoveries and theories which served as the precursors to Einstein’s work. The most significant of these is Newton’s own version of relativity, now dubbed ‘Newtonian relativity’. Before we continue a … Continue reading
Posted in Physics, Relativity
6 Comments
The pre-history of Einstein’s relativity
I’m planning to do a long-term series of posts on Einstein’s relativity, starting with the special theory and progressing to the general theory (if you don’t know what the difference is, that’s okay, ’cause I’m gonna explain it all, eventually). … Continue reading
Posted in Physics, Relativity
10 Comments
Scientists make ‘blackest’ material ever!
This was an interesting bit of science news from last week: according to an article on optics.org (free registration required), a research team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Rice University has fabricated the ‘blackest’ material ever known, which reflects just … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
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Sound as a fire extinguisher?
A friend of mine forwarded me a link (h/t “JakeRyker”) about extinguishing fire with sound waves that appeared in Scientific American. As noted in the article, it has been known since experiments by John Tyndall in 1857 that flames could … Continue reading
Posted in Physics, Science news
2 Comments
Some random tips on scientific public speaking
I’m currently in San Jose, at Photonics West, the biggest optics meeting of the SPIE (Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, originally.) I’m only here briefly, and pretty burned out on meetings for the moment. I did see some nice talks … Continue reading
Posted in Optics, Physics
4 Comments
Two nice books on movie physics!
One of the nice Christmas gift surprises this past year was a pair of books from my girlfriend’s sister! (Thanks!) Both books deal with the physics of Hollywood movies, though from slightly different points of view: Don’t Try This At … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment, Physics
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A LaTeX how-to (for windows)
There was a nice post on Good Math, Bad Math about Donald Knuth’s classic scientific typesetting software, TeX. In the comments section, a number of people asked about how to learn to use the software. I thought I’d write a … Continue reading
A Brief Field Guide to Scientific Crackpots
Science and technology have progressed rapidly over the past fifty years, and access to this knowledge and opposing viewpoints has grown rapidly as well, thanks to the internet. Unfortunately, not all of these opposing viewpoints are reasonable, and many come … Continue reading
Relativity Denialists: Like the Heads of the Hydra…
Now I know how Hercules must have felt. Like the mythical hydra, you slap down one relativity denialist, and two more pop up in his place. In my case, one appeared as a comment on my blog (filtered as spam … Continue reading
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