Optical rogue waves at American Scientist!

Been quite busy lately, but I wrote a blog post on recent research on rogue waves, the rare killers of the sea, at American Scientist, which appeared this week!  A snippet:

Until these discoveries, such rogues were thought to be so incredibly rare as to never be encountered. Now they are recognized as a genuine threat to ocean-going vessels, and perhaps one of the leading causes of ships being lost to Davy Jones’s Locker. But what causes them? There are a number of factors that are thought to possibly contribute to their formation, but it is unclear how important each of these factors is. Unfortunately, studying such waves in their natural environment is simply not possible, due to their relative rarity and unpredictable appearance.

Read the whole thing at American Scientist, and thanks to them for giving me the chance to blog there!

(More from me at this blog in the near future!)

Posted in Optics, Physics | Leave a comment

Jennifer Foehner Wells’ Fluency

Been away from blogging for a while due to work and stress — going to start catching up on my book blogging!

A massive, mysterious alien craft is spotted in solar system, seemingly dormant.  A team of scientists and astronauts are sent to intercept the craft and unlock its secrets — and uncover its occupants.

It is a familiar start to a science fiction story — Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous With Rama, for instance — but in Jennifer Foehner Wells’ 2014 novel Fluency, the story quickly takes a very different and unusual turn.

fluency

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Posted in Science fiction | 1 Comment

My Google Hangout Seminar on Invisibility Physics!

In lieu of more substantial writing on the blog, here’s a link to another presentation I gave! I was invited to give a Google Hangout Seminar at the University of Central Arkansas on “How Not to be Seen: The History and Science of Invisibility,” a subject that I know a lot about, as you can see from my myriad blog posts!  Here’s the talk, which lasts about an hour and has a short Q&A at the end.

Thanks again to Professor Will Slaton for the invitation — I had a fun time!

(Going to get back into more detailed physics and history posts in the near future.)

Posted in Invisibility, Optics, Personal | Leave a comment

The Muslimoclockobomb conspiracy: connecting the dots

By now, you have all no doubt heard about 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, who brought a home-made “clock” to his Texas school to show to his engineering teacher and was arrested when he was unable to explain why it was not a bomb to investigating policemen.  And who wouldn’t have been suspicious, considering Ahmed’s explanation of this so-called “clock?”

Irving Police spokesman Officer James McLellan told the station, “We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only tell us that it was a clock.”

Really, a non-guilty student would have gone into much more detail, as was noted on twitter.

Ahmed was soon released, and no charges will be filed against him.  But the threat has been revealed: as noted by the not-at-all-racist-and-delusional Center for Security Policy, Ahmed had in essence built “half a bomb.”  The fear spread in the wake of Ahmed’s actions has been devastating: Former half-term Governor and permanent national treasure Sarah Palin is now so frightened that she thinks she’s the Queen of England.

I’m here to tell you that we must be more careful.  In fact, half-a-bombs are not only around us everywhere, they are being boldly sold online for anyone to purchase.  No reasonable person could ever imagine that a clock would be a good project for a young person to work on to learn the basics of electronics.   This is a threat to our national security, and it is time for us to WAKE UP.

A few seconds of Google searching took me to SparkFun Electronics, where they are boldly selling the first half of bombs without shame.

clockit

Note the snooze feature, in case your bomb is going off early and you decide you’d like 9 more minutes to terrorize.

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Posted in ... the Hell?, Silliness | 4 Comments

“Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics” Presentation!

For the new student convocation at UNCC this year, I was asked to give a “Thinking Matters” presentation for the new freshmen, in which I talk about some sort of interesting topic to, well, get the students thinking and excited about learning.  I decided to give a talk on the physics of falling cats, as I’ve blogged about many times here.

The good news: my talk was recorded by the university!  The video can be watched below, for those who are interested.  It’s a combination of physics, history, and cats.

Mine was one of only two talks that were selected to be recorded this year, in part due to logistical challenges.  The other is by my chemistry colleague Michael Walter, and can be watched below.

Posted in Animals, Personal, Physics | 1 Comment

Robert R. McCammon’s The Border

It’s nice to see Robert McCammon return to writing weird horror novels!  From the late 1970s to the early 1990s, McCammon was one of the best writers of the dark and weird out there; some time ago I blogged about how magnificent his 1991 novel Boy’s Life is.  In 1998, however, he effectively retired from writing, due to an interest in focusing on his family life and frustrations with the publishing industry.  When he returned to writing in 2002, he worked on an excellent series of historical novels, starting with Speaks the Nightbird.

In 2013, McCammon made a foray back into horror, with the fun western vampire novella  I Travel by Night (which I was going to blog about but forgot for some reason).  This May, he released his first full horror novel in over 20 years, The Border.

theborder

The Border is McCammon’s take on the alien invasion story, and it manages to balance on the (often fuzzy) edge between science fiction and horror.

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8-year blogiversary!

Just a short note: August 14th marked the 8-year anniversary of my first post on this blog!

My first post, on August 14th, 2007, was titled “Educate or bust,” and that still kind of exemplifies what I’m trying to do here on Skulls in the Stars.  You can read that original post here.

Things will be quiet for a few more days, as the new semester is starting and I’ve got some work deadlines coming up, but expect more science and weird fiction goodness soon!

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments

“Secrets of the Universe” campaign has begun!

I’ve been quite busy the past two weeks, but I just wanted to drop a short note to let folks know that a really cool new science cinematic experience is being crowdfunded on Indiegogo: Secrets of the Universe!

This project, partially funded by the National Science Foundation and supported by CERN, will give an unprecedented look inside the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.  This is where the Higgs boson was discovered, and where the next fundamental, well, secrets of the universe will be uncovered.  What else is there to discover about the fundamental forces of nature?  The LHC will be the place we find out!

The movie will be filmed and presented on IMAX screens throughout the world, and they’ve enlisted a remarkably talented set of scientists and science communicators to help, including some folks I know through twitter, Dianna Cowern (@thephysicsgirl) and Deborah Berebichez (@debbiebere).

Two days in, the project is off to a good start in terms of funding, but they could use your help!  Please take a look at the project page and consider donating.  There are, of course, lots of perks to be had, including tickets to the movie and more!

Posted in Entertainment, Physics | Leave a comment

Physics demonstrations: Lichtenberg figures

I am a big fan of nature and science-themed artwork, whether inspired by natural phenomenon or created by physical processes.  In my office — which includes several pieces of work by Artologica, by the way — I have the following eye-catching piece.

qualitylichtenberg

 

This is what is known as a Lichtenberg figure, named after the German scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799), who discovered the effect in 1777.  It is sometimes referred to as “frozen lightning,” which is actually more accurate than it might appear at first.

My decorative Lichtenberg figure — which I purchased online — was produced with the aid of a particle accelerator, obviously not something that people readily have on hand.  However, it is also possible to create such figures at home in a crude manner not far from Lichtenberg’s original technique.

Continue reading

Posted in History of science, Physics demos | 5 Comments

Dead Reckonings #17 is available!

For those who are interested in reading analyses of the latest in horror literature and cinema, I’m happy to announce that Dead Reckonings No. 17 is now available!

deadreckonings17

 

It includes articles by some of the best writers and scholars of the horror field… and also includes articles by me!

I somehow forgot to mention on this blog that I also had an article in Dead Reckonings No. 16, which came out some months ago.  This has been a really delightful opportunity for me: I could hardly imagine that my writing (albeit literary criticism!) would appear alongside such remarkable folks such as Ramsey Campbell and S.T. Joshi.  I would like to thank editor June Pulliam for the opportunity!

Posted in Horror | 4 Comments