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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: … the Hell?
Conservation mode/growing pains
What Christina said: We’re putting scientopia basically in to conservation mode to conserve resources until we get hosting issues squared away. So we’ll have no commenting on new posts for a bit. This isn’t a sinister plot to stifle dissenting … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?
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Tolman goes silly for similitude! (1914)
This post is for the special “fools, failures and frauds” edition of The Giant’s Shoulders. The early 20th century was clearly an exciting time to be a physicist. In 1905, Einstein published his special theory of relativity, radically revising human … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, History of science, Physics, [PhysicalScience]
10 Comments
Right-wing refutations of relativity really, really wrong!
Back when I first started my blog, I spent a lot more time dealing with crazy people who are convinced that Einstein’s theories of relativity are wrong (see here, here and here). More recently, I haven’t spent a lot of … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, Relativity
53 Comments
The sciencebloggosphere is a changing! (updated)
(Updated July 22, 2010 — been hard to keep up with all the changes! Let me know if I have left anyone out.) Update: The strike is over! SEED seems to have agreed to the changes requested. BIG Update: PZ … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?
41 Comments
“On the decline of mathematical studies, and the sciences dependent upon them”
I was browsing the internet a few weeks ago, and came across an opinion piece lamenting the poor state of mathematical education and the detrimental effect it has had on science. The provocative piece starts as follows: It is a … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, History of science
5 Comments
Infinite series are weird — redux!
A bit over a year ago, I wrote a blog post about the mathematics of infinite series, and how weird such series can be, considering in particular the behavior of “conditionally convergent series”. A recent post at Built on Facts … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, Mathematics
14 Comments
Mythbustin’: 1808 edition (the incombustible man)
I swear that I’m not going through journals looking for old versions of the Mythbusters‘ experiments! After blogging about old scientific papers on myths such as “finger in the barrel” and “Archimedes death ray“, I figured I’d pretty much tapped … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, General science, History of science
20 Comments
Perpetual motion — nonsense for over 100 years
Some two years ago, I wrote a post about a device called the “whipmag”, a thinly-disguised perpetual motion machine based on magnets that would supposedly accelerate without an external source of energy once set in motion. I was understandably critical … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, History of science
24 Comments
The oldest LOLcat?
While researching another science post, I came across the following image: The image is from The Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine, vol. 1 (1898-1899), at the end of the introduction to the magazine by Alfred C. Harmsworth. This seems to be … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, Animals, Silliness
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A WTF scientific paper from Edinburgh, 1884
I’m still quite busy finishing off my book, and a grant proposal in the meantime, but I thought I’d share a very odd paper from the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 13 (1884), 23-24, entitled, “Extraordinary occurrence at … Continue reading
Posted in ... the Hell?, History of science, Physics
11 Comments
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