Gods of Jade and Shadow, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Posted on February 3, 2024 by skullsinthestars

Book 2 of my 26 books for 2024 goal! Still roughly on track, though I want to pick up the pace.

One reason I like book blogging is that I pay more attention to things like book introductions and that often leads me to more interesting reads! Last year, when I read Orrin Grey’s excellent collection How to See Ghosts and Other Figments, I noted the lovely introduction by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, a Mexico-born Canadian novelist. I am always looking for new and interesting authors to read, and so I picked up her 2019 novel Gods of Jade and Shadow, whose premise immediately intrigued me.

This novel is a modern fairy tale, set in the Jazz Age in Mexico, and features a young girl who gets drawn into a power struggle between two Mayan Gods of Death!

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Posted in Horror, Weird fiction | Leave a comment

“The birth of electromagnetism” on TikTok!

Posted on February 1, 2024 by skullsinthestars

I have made another history of science video for TikTok, this time focusing on the curious story of how electromagnetism was discovered in 1820 in an experiment that is utterly unique for one really big reason:

@drskyskull

Some more unusual #history of #science for folks, this time about the unique circumstances in which electromagnetism was discovered. I also talk about one corpse and one guy who kinda looks like a corpse.

♬ original sound – Drskyskull

Like a lot of my TikTok videos, this represents a condensed version of a blog post I did a few years ago; if you want more detail and/or a text version of the story, here’s the link!

Posted in History of science, Physics | Leave a comment

Robert Williams Wood adds invisibility to his textbook (1911)

Posted on January 28, 2024 by skullsinthestars

It’s kind of a fun phenomenon that no matter how thoroughly I research my history of science books, after they’re published I always find something that surprises me. In this case, I was tracking down some data on the physics of anomalous dispersion (more on that in another blog post), which led me to Robert Williams Wood’s textbook on Physical Optics, whose second edition came out in 1911. And in this book, I found a whole section on “invisibility of objects!”

This doesn’t change my overall narrative on the history of invisibility, as I’ve written about Wood’s 1902 paper on invisibility before, in which he experimentally tested a very curious (and certainly not true in general) hypothesis by Lord Rayleigh. I’ve also written about Wood’s science fiction novels before (two of them: here and here), and his fascinating series of physics lecture demonstrations. Wood was an all-around fascinating fellow, and he is one of a few physicists who got a mention in both my Falling Felines book and my Invisibility book!

Let’s take a look at Wood’s section on invisibility, because it is a fascinating glimpse into how physicists were even thinking about the possibility of invisibility over 100 years ago!

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Posted in History of science, Invisibility | Leave a comment

Helgoland, by Carlo Rovelli

Posted on January 21, 2024 by skullsinthestars

Book 1 of my new modest goal of reading and blogging about 26 books this year! This one is a little bit of a cheat, as I read much of it near the end of last year, but I finished reading it for my book club this year, so I’m counting it!

A few months ago, I finally completed my long-delayed series of posts explaining quantum entanglement, and Part 7 was all about the question, “What does it all mean?” For the purpose of interpreting and predicting experimental results, quantum physics as it is currently interpreted (in what is known as the Copenhagen interpretation) works really, really well; however, from a logical and philosophical point of view, it seems filled with contradictions.

To get around these contradictions, numerous researchers have come up with different ways to interpret quantum physics, and one of those interpretations is known as relational quantum physics, as first introduced by the Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli in 1994 and published in a peer-reviewed journal in 1996 [1].

Several years ago, Rovelli wrote a popular account of the concepts of relational quantum physics, titled Helgoland (2020), and I was intrigued to learn more.

I must admit that I was deeply skeptical of relational quantum mechanics when I first heard of it, but a combination of reading Rovelli’s book and some of the research papers on the subject have made the ideas seem much more compelling, at least in a broad sense!

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Posted in History of science, Physics | 2 Comments

Fake Book Titles Extravaganza, Part 8!

Posted on January 20, 2024 by skullsinthestars

It’s time to compile all my fake book titles from social media again!  You can see compilation 1, compilation 2, compilation 3, compilation 4, compilation 5, compilation 6 and compilation 7 at the links. 

This is a smaller batch, because I haven’t been as inspired lately and haven’t done as many. The collapse of Twitter has left me less motivated, too, but I still try to do them when a cover grabs my attention!

Some covers require minimum effort to modify and feature subjects soooo satisfying to mock.

Original title: Elon Musk, by Walter Isaacson
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Posted in ... the Hell?, Silliness | 1 Comment

Frank Perret’s The Eruption of Mt. Pelée 1929-1932

Posted on January 17, 2024 by skullsinthestars

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve started to experiment with doing history of science TikToks for fun, and did one not long ago about Frank Perret’s brush with death in the path of a pyroclastic flow on Mount Pelée somewhere around 1930:

@drskyskull

Frank versus the volcano: a #history of #science story about a vulcanologist who found himself directly in the path of one of the deadliest volcanoes in recorder history. #foryou

♬ original sound – Drskyskull

This video was based on a post I did on my Science Chamber of Horrors Tumblr ages ago on “Frank Versus the Volcano,” and in the process of prepping the video I had to track down my original source for Perret’s story, which is his 1937 monograph on his observations of Mt. Pelée from 1929-1932.

The digital copy of the book wasn’t that great, as many of the photographs had bad scanning artifacts, and that got me thinking: how much would it cost to get an original copy of Perret’s monograph? The answer, as it turns out, is about $25, so I couldn’t resist picking one up and sharing some of the original images here!

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Posted in History of science | Leave a comment

In memory of Jennell Jaquays, 1956-2024

Posted on January 10, 2024 by skullsinthestars

I was shocked and saddened to learn this morning of the death of Jennell Jaquays, an early and groundbreaking writer for Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying games. Jennell had been hospitalized late last year with Guillain-Barré syndrome, and her wife Rebecca has had a GoFundMe going for the exorbitant medical costs. Donations will certainly still be needed to cover the outstanding medical costs and funeral costs.

I became acquainted with Jennell by meeting her on Twitter, and though I can’t say I knew her well, my interactions with her were always fun and/or insightful. I like to think we were friends, and I am sad that I never had a chance to get to know her in person.

Jennell had a really significant impact on early Dungeons & Dragons, writing many game adventures and supplements that are now considered classics as well as many more that should be viewed as classics. I’ve posted about quite a few of them over recent years, and let’s take a look back at some of those, from the famous to the obscure.

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Posted in Personal, role-playing games | Leave a comment

Invisibility a Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title for 2023!

Posted on January 5, 2024 by skullsinthestars

I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog due to the holiday craziness and a frantic rush to submit a grant proposal before the deadline, but I will hopefully be back on track in the near future.

But I wanted to share some wonderful news about my book Invisibility: it was selected as a Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title for 2023! What is Choice? To quote from their About Page, “Choice is a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.” Each year, they post a list of several hundred “outstanding academic titles,” which I understand is a big deal in a practical sense because this is a list that libraries use to help them order books!

I’ve actually known for a few weeks that my book made the list, but… I wasn’t able to see the full list, which is subscription only, and I couldn’t figure out if and how to access my university library’s subscription, so I held onto the news until I had something to share. Finally today they published a selection of reviews of 5 outstanding titles in physics, and my book is included! The review is one of the most positive and lovely I’ve received yet, so I am including a screenshot of it here for my own happiness.

Honestly, this is the best review I’ve gotten by far, and it makes me really happy! Just wanted to share it with everyone.

And just in case folks are still unaware that I wrote this book, here’s a link to my publisher’s page!

Posted in Invisibility, Personal | 2 Comments

The fate of Charles Delaunay on TikTok!

Posted on December 30, 2023 by skullsinthestars

Hey folks, I posted a new short history of science video on TikTok, telling a slightly eerie story in the spirit of Victorian Christmas ghost stories about the fate of astronomer Charles Delaunay.

@drskyskull

#greenscreen Some eerie #history of #science for the holiday season, about the fate of French astronomer Charles Delaunay. #fyp

♬ original sound – Drskyskull
Posted in History of science, Horror | Leave a comment

From the archives: Phantasmagoria: How Étienne-Gaspard Robert terrified Paris for science

Posted on December 29, 2023 by skullsinthestars
Phantasmagoria: How Étienne-Gaspard Robert terrified Paris for science

This is another classic post that I will probably turn into a TikTok video in the future, but I am very proud of the writing I did here!

Posted in History of science, Optics | Leave a comment