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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: Science news
Making light follow a curve (updated)
I was sent a link today to an interesting article about some research done at the University of Central Florida. Researchers have concocted a class of optical beams which appear to follow a curved trajectory in free space propagation. A … Continue reading
Starship Troopers coming to a battlefield near you
I thought this was pretty cool. Remember when the powered armor in Heinlein’s Starship Troopers seemed so futuristic? Well, a company is developing exoskeleton suits for the military, and though I wouldn’t want to be running around on a combat … Continue reading
The more things change…
Most people are hopefully aware of the very strong religious right movement to incorporate creationism (the belief that God created the world and everything in it in its present form) in science classes as valid topic of study alongside evolution … Continue reading
A ride on the Shanghai maglev train
I’ve been in a ‘magnet mood’ since I did my big post on the physics Nobel winners a week ago, and I thought it would be nice to show one of the most spectacular applications of magnetism – magnetic levitation … Continue reading
Animal intelligence news, with videos!
I’ve been meaning to write a post on animal intelligence for a couple of weeks, but have been sidetracked by work (and life). A few recent stories kicked off the motivation to write it, first and foremost this story on … Continue reading
And the Nobel Peace Prize goes to…
Al Gore and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The award was won for their efforts to raise awareness about global warming. There’s a few interesting things to note about this award. First, it was barely a day … Continue reading
And the Physics Nobel Prize goes to…
Albert Fert and Peter Gruenberg, for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance. This is one of those prizes that’s pretty well-deserved, because giant magnetoresistance is now applied for data readout on pretty much every magnetic hard drive being produced, such as … Continue reading
Quantum computing creeps forward
Researchers at Yale have apparently managed to take an important step forward in the development of quantum computers: they’ve gotten atoms to talk to each other coherently over a long distance. What is ‘quantum computing’? To understand this, we begin … Continue reading
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Darn! No alien invasion… yet!
I’m terribly disappointed. Last week, a story out of Peru had all the hallmarks of a good alien invasion story — a mysterious meteorite crashes near a small town in Peru, and local residents start to fall ill. (‘Personal Demon’ … Continue reading
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A ‘bizzare star’, an incomplete explanation
NASA just announced the discovery of a previously unnoticed astronomical phenomenon, a star exhibiting ‘comet-like’ behavior (H/T Personal Demon). This can be read about both on NASA’s web page as well as through CNN. A large star in its death … Continue reading
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Skulls in the Stars 