catdynamics | October 4, 2012
The New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology program included 20 awards for 2 year research projects on Big Questions.
The winners are:
Big Question I
What was the earliest state of the universe?
Detecting Cosmic Superstrings
David Chernoff, Cornell University
Co-Investigator: Henry Tye, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
CosmoArchaeology: Digging for the Initial State
Richard Holman, Carnegie Mellon University
Co-Investigators: Shirley Ho, Carnegie Mellon University; Sarah Shandera, The Pennsylvania State University; Nishant Agarwal, Carnegie Mellon University; Ross O’Connell…
catdynamics | October 4, 2012The New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology program included 21 awards for essays by high school and university students on the Big Questions.
The winners are:
Student Essay Competition
College Essay Winners
First Prize
Yong Wei Chong Gabrielle, Wellesley College,
"A Letter to My Dearest Newborn Baby Brother"
Second Prizes
Karl Haislmaier, George Mason University,
"The Emergence of Complexity in the Universe as Viewed from a Holistic Perspective"
Patrick Olden, University of St. Andrews,
"How can we know the complex?"
Third Prizes
Annette Hein, Casper College,
"The Observer's Eye: Human…
catdynamics | October 4, 2012The New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology program has
announced its Award winners!
The $4+ million in awards went to 20 scientists studying Big Questions on fundamental issues and 21 high school and university student essay prize winners.
The awards will be presented at a conference at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia next week.
The program is funded by the Templeton Foundation as part of its celebration of the centennial of the birth of its founder, John Templeton.
The topics solicited for the Big Questions were very interesting:
What was the earliest state of the universe?
What…
catdynamics | October 3, 2012“If... then my old theory is completely toast,” says astrophysicist Steinn Sigurdsson of Pennsylvania State University. “This is a really nice piece of work.”
Nice Nature paper coming out tomorrow by Jay Strader et al
on a pair of flat spectrum ultra-faint radio sources in the core of M22.
The sources are consistent with being ~ 20 solar mass black holes, accreting at a low rate from, well, something.
Maybe...
Best candidates yet in the Milky Way globulars.
M22 has a somewhat unusual structure (massive fluffy core) in a way that several authors have suggested might be a signature of black…
catdynamics | October 3, 2012
Postdoctoral Scholar, Stellar and Exoplanetary Astrophysics and SETI
"Applications are invited for a postdoctoral research associate position to work with Prof. Jason Wright and collaborators.
The ideal applicant will have some combination of:
• experience working with large photometric datasets, especially in the near and mid-IR
• strong coding skills, in languages including IDL
• the ability to independently solve novel research problems, including the application of results from unfamiliar fields
• a desire to work with and assist in advising graduate and undergraduate students;
• a…
catdynamics | October 2, 2012
fitbit
The fitbit is a high end pedometer, with extra fun play functions.
It talks to your iThings, sends you cute little messages of encouragement, and, of course, there is an App for all that.
(You can also obsessively enter all your food intake for that extra encouragement).
The interesting thing is it works.
I got the cute plum purlply pink one, my better half having confiscated the pretty blue...
catdynamics | October 2, 2012Applications are invited for a postdoctoral scholar position to work with Prof. Mike Eracleous and collaborators. The successful applicant will join a team working to identify close, supermassive binary black holes through a combination of observational tests. The postdoctoral scholar will be expected to plan and carry out observations related to this project and lead the effort of analyzing the data and publishing the results.
A Ph.D. in astronomy, physics, or a related field is required, and research experience on active galactic nuclei is highly desirable. In addition, experience with the…
catdynamics | September 29, 2012more random tidbits worth a peek, including a new Henri le Chat video...
New coronavirus from bats - related to SARS seen in several cases from Middle East. Looks nasty.
Producing Ethylene via Photosynthesis - surpringly efficient, and easily capturably hydrocarbon ready from some petrochemistry. Still requires huge amounts of land (100,000 km2++ to make much difference, but so does anything that uses any solar to provide primary power
Joe Polchinski (KITP, UCSB) on Firewalls and Black Holes - interesting developments on the black hole information paradox. Been keeping half an eye on it.…
catdynamics | September 14, 2012The OMB has reported on the effects of sequestration that will be triggered Jan 2013 unless Congress proactively changes the law before then.
Some time ago, Congress set itself a trap: in an attempt to look like they were dealing with government spending and the deficit, they passed a law that triggers automatic cuts to spending, unless Congress agrees and passes laws that make concomitant targeted cuts or revenue increases to decrease the deficit.
The nominal cuts are about $1.2 trillion, over a decade, cut from the projected budget in the out years, and are, by design flat across-the-board…
catdynamics | September 11, 2012a few years ago, during a particularly busy period, I found myself putting "take a shower" on my To Do Lists...
not so much because I needed the reminder, though people may differ on that point, but more for the temporary morale boost of being able to cross at least one point off the To Do List (since at that point I had found that "Update To Do List" was no longer a satisfactory checkpoint to make...)
I am intrigued to report that this is not, in fact, the low point, it is possible to be driven to having to formally set aside a slot for even more elementary processes, and, no, I don't mean "…
catdynamics | September 1, 2012Ah, semester has started, and with it comes the grind of studying for the big test, where callow highschoolers finally get to see if they can make it in the big leagues.
Here we see them in lecture:
One of the 30 or so in class lectures before the test
Yes, football players go to lectures.
About football, as well as whatever other subjects they are taking.
The coach gets up there, talks about football and shit, and they all listen, and nod, and maybe take some notes, and check their cool pics on facebook, and text their friends, and nap... afterwards they go their separate ways back to their…
catdynamics | August 31, 2012Anyone want to buy some telescopes?
Heavily used.
Free to a good home.
The NSF has issued a preliminary response to the NSF Astronomy Portfolio Review.
Game on.
NSF MPS/AST Response to Portfolio Review Report (pdf)
This is a 4 page response from NSF Astronomy Division Director Ulvestad to the Portfolio Review, from August 31st 2012.
Implementation is pending current budget negotiations for next fiscal year budget and plan.
Implementation requires acting by end of 2013.
Small Grants: "...Given the constrained budget scenarios and the explicitly higher-priority recommendation for AAG and…
catdynamics | August 29, 2012Meet Henri...
he is a cat.
Part deux is a masterpiece.
Silly, but excellent.
catdynamics | August 28, 2012catching up on random snippets:
How the American University was Killed - a guide in 5 Easy Steps
Sterrekundig Instituut Utrecht: The Last Years
"The Rhine, the Rhine, the German Rhine!
Who guards to-day my stream divine?"
Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist
How do Science Blogs Change the Face of Science?
Graduate Orientation -changing the face of scientists
"Graduate school, especially at the beginning, is an ego-destroying, even humiliating, experience."
Science for Princesses...
The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Scientific Talk
Kinds of Wrong
One Leaving Academe
catdynamics | August 16, 2012Heads up, peeps.
NSF Portfolio Review is out
Mayall, WIYN, 2.1m KPNO, GBT and VLBA are out in recommended scenarios.
Shit.
Portfolio Review - full text 170 pp (pdf)
To summarise: Kitt Peak telescopes cut; Green Bank Radio Telescope and Very Large Baseline Array cut; McM-P Solar Telescope cut before Advanced Solar Telescope starts.
Committee recommends pre-emptive cuts based on pessimistic budget scenario.
LSST, CCAT and GSMT in.
Two scenarios:
A presumes 10% effective cut over decade
B presumes 30% effective cut over decade
From Exec Summary: "We recommend that AST avoid the risk of…
catdynamics | August 16, 2012Continuing slow live blog of the “New Particle Physics at the LHC and Its Connection to Dark Matter” workshop at the Aspen Center for Physics.
Series of short talks this morning:
"A WIMPy Baryogenesis Miracle" by
Yanou Cui, Lisa Randall, Brian Shuve (arXiv:1112.2704) interesting and possibly useful speculation on how electroweak scale WIMPs could couple to normal matter in early universe and actually generate some or all of the normal matter, in particular in such a way as to generate the observed matter/anti-matter asymmetry.
Aside: Quantum Diaries has the down and dirty details of the Higgs…
catdynamics | August 15, 2012
Mining the Astronomical Literature - yes, just ADS not the Asteroids, yet.
Shamelessly cribbed from a thread on the fb Astronomers group
In defence of string theory - rather good post by Matt Strassler
Claim that founding node of networks can be efficiently localized by sparse sampling
Don't Confuse Technology With College Teaching - from the Chronicle
Kepler 11: A Six-Planet Sonata from Alex Parker on Vimeo.