catdynamics | April 3, 2014In the great tradition of tracking Amazing Norwegian Meteorite Stories, we bring you:
Meteorite almost hits Norwegian skydiver
h/t Stjörnufræðivefurinn
Short Norwegian version...
catdynamics | March 17, 2014Imagine you were a very clever ant, living on a large log, floating in a big lake...
BICEP2 at twilight
...a very large, deep, cold lake.
Being a not incurious, clever ant, you contemplate the lake in its infinite and insurmountable vastness.
Surely knowing what lies on the lake, or even beyond the lake (if such can be conceived) is not feasible.
Then, you notice that the lake has ripples.
Ripples, and waves, and swirls.
So, being a methodical sort of ant, you start measuring the ripples and waves and swirls, and you get your student ants to measure them also.
You measure lots of waves,…
catdynamics | January 24, 2014Sparkling, stinging, cold
Fine microcrystals of snow
Dance of the sunrise
catdynamics | January 6, 2014You are at university.
Do you like stars, and stuff?
We revisit old ruminations on career paths 'cause it is topical...
Another rehashed blast from the past.
Should you do astronomy as an undergrad? (the following is in part shamelessly cribbed from a colleague’s previous freshman seminar for our majors):
Do you like stars and stuff?
If not, you probably should look for an alternative to astronomy, on the general principle that at this stage of life you should at least try to do things you actually like.
If you do, good for you.
Now, do you have the aptitude?
Professional astrophysics/…
catdynamics | January 6, 2014So, now you’re at university, and you’re thinking about heading for grad school …
A seasonal revisit of some old rumblings*
*NB: this discussion should not be construed to be anything but hypothetical ramblings, they do not reflect in any way the official position of any academic institution, department or graduate program, especially not the one I am part of!
So You Want To Be An Astrophysicist? Part 1.5: thinking about grad school
Posted by Steinn Sigurðsson on January 16, 2012
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So, now you’re at university, and you’re thinking about heading for grad school …
More…
catdynamics | December 18, 2013What should a high school student do to get on a track to become an astrophysicist?
Reworked from a rework from an oldie.
Something prompted me to think it is time to lightly update and republish this series, possibly with added bonus parts!
So, you're in high school wondering what to do with yourself, and you think: "hey, I could be an Astrophysicist!"
So, what should YOU do, wanting to get into a good university and an astro/physics major?
1) Take all the math that is offered, and do well in it.
The limiting factor for most students wanting to do astronomy or astrophysics is poor math…
catdynamics | December 18, 2013An interesting new twist for the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society will be the "Augmented Reality" poster - an instantiation of the very rapidly growing augmented reality features appearing everywhere through smartphone apps or google glass.
V838 Mon poster by Vogt et al
will have a layar augmentation:
[caption id="attachment_3642" align="aligncenter" width="200"] Vogt et al poster viewed through layar app on an iPhone
(click to embiggen)[/caption]
using layar creator, tags are added to the poster which pop up when viewed through the app providing links to sources, videos,…
catdynamics | December 13, 2013Although many moons have passed, we once again approach The Mighty iPod One, and we once again ask the impossible:
Oh, Mighty iPod, is there indeed invasive terrestrial scum on Europa, transmitted through the mystery of lithopanspermia?
Woosh goes the Mighty iPod.
Woosh.
The Covering: Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy - Bowie and Crosby
The Crossing: One of Us - Joan Osbourne
The Crown: The Space Race is Over - Billy Bragg
The Root: Trúir Þú Á Engla - Bubbi
The Past: Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
The Future: "Hi hi hi hi hi" - Die Zauberfloete, Mozart
The Questioner: Set Fire to the Rain -…
catdynamics | December 11, 2013Tonight it begins:
Stekkjastaur is headed for town.
Be good.
Believe!
catdynamics | December 11, 2013This is awesome!
I am reliably informed that this was one of the all time great concerts.
Skálmöld and the Icelandic Symphony in concert at Harpa.
catdynamics | October 30, 2013Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious ship which will peer far and wide...
The European Space Agency is being very sensible and mapping out its schedule for large and medium science missions for the medium term, under the Cosmic Vision program.
In particular, the first of the large missions, L1, has been chosen and is JUICE, Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer - a Jovian orbiter scheduled for launch in 2022, to study the three outer Galilean Moons.
Athena
The other mission concepts which competed for the L1 mission slot were Athena, a reformulated large X-ray observatory - Athena is revisit of the…
catdynamics | October 11, 2013"Text of Bolden Response to Wolf Letter Re Chinese Participation in Kepler Conference" - from spacepolicyonline.com
>From: Bolden, Charles (HQ-AA000)
>Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 12:20 PM Central Standard Time
>To:
>Cc:
>Subject: Response to Chairman Wolf
"It is unfortunate that potential Chinese participants were refused attendance at the upcoming Kepler Conference at the Ames Research Park. Mid-level managers at Ames, in performing the due diligence they believed appropriate following a period of significant concern and scrutiny from Congress about our foreign access to…
catdynamics | October 10, 2013 When it is darkest, men see the stars.
This afternoon I needed to check something urgently, and as is my habit in this day and age, I jumped to a website where I knew the information was available.
A few seconds later, with some irritation I went to hit "refresh" as the request failed to go through, and then realized that it was a *.nasa.gov address, at Ames, as it happens, and I was not going to be getting that bit of data this afternoon, not without some old fashioned legwork.
A bit later I realized with increasing dismay that a signficant fraction of the illustrations for my class…
catdynamics | October 10, 2013the venerable Chronicle of Higher Education had a few interesting tidbits in last week's issue:
How a College Took Assessment to Heart, Lebanon Valley College takes an accreditors warning to heart - the key issue being that the informal committee of "General Officers", the Vice Presidents, with the college President, were making all decisions, and all were focused on revenue.
The turnaround, so far, involves a new President and the departure of the VP for Finance with a focus the college actually achieving its academic goals.
There may be more colleges going down this path.
This is followed…
catdynamics | September 18, 2013The google+ hangout on SETI searches for KII and KIII aliens using WISE is archived on Youtube:
Enjoy
catdynamics | September 17, 2013A google hangout this afternoon:
"Today, September 18, 2:00 PM
SETI Institute researchers Jill Tarter and Franck Marchis (host & moderator) will hangout with Jason Wright, professor of astronomy at Penn State, Matt Povich, professor of astronomy at Cal Poly Pomona and Freeman Dyson, theoretical physicist and mathematician at the Institute for Advance Study.
These scientists will discuss the potential for the WISE telescope to detect extraterrestrial super-civilizations that acquired a large energy supply by building a mega-structure to harvest the energy of their star("Dyson Sphere") or…
catdynamics | August 26, 2013The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics is currently holding a "Rapid Response Workshop" on Black Holes: Complementarity, Fuzz, or Fire?, August 19-30.
Organizers: Raphael Bousso (UCB), Samir Mathur (OSU), Rob Myers (PI), Joe Polchinski (KITP), Lenny Susskind (Stanford)
The lunch talk today is Lenny Susskind "Inside Black Holes"
That talk will be available on video, audio and podcast feeds soon
The general session talks from the Fuzz, or Fire are available as they become available at the link above.
catdynamics | August 15, 2013Many physical scientists learned of the curious phenomena of the Cargo Cult from Feynman's commencement address at Caltech, as reproduced in his book, "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!".
In the address, Feynman cautions us against the conceptually similar notion of Cargo Cult Science, where people go through the motions of mimicking a scientific process, while never comprehending the essential nature of science.
The Cargo Cult Scientists follow some process that bears a superficial resemblance to science without understanding the true nature of what they are doing and the results are…
catdynamics | August 12, 2013Is the general audience "black board" talk at KITP today, giving an overview of the quantitative approches to morphogenesis program currently unverway.
Symmetry breaking and mechanics.
The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics runs parallel programs and currently there is a biophysics program New Quantitative Approaches to Morphogenesis concurrent with the astrophysics program on A Universe of Black Holes
During each multi-week program there is a black board lunch talk, for all members of KITP, giving an overview of the theme of the program or some key aspect of it. The talk is intended to…