astro
catdynamics | May 6, 2008...57 papers to grade on the pile on the desk
57 papers to grade on the pile on the desk
take one off, grade it down
56 papers to grade on the pile on the desk...
catdynamics | May 5, 2008All right.
Which of you jokers edited wikipedia to say "Cosmic Magnetic Background"?
It was funny the first time, but the nth time I read that for the CMB in ugrad essays it gets tiresome... just in time for finals week, eh?
catdynamics | May 5, 2008selected referee comments on "A bold proposal to do something new and interesting",
years 1-3
with added bonus translation
very speculative, no track record in this area, would be helped by showing preliminary results proving methodology and showing that results will be forthcoming [trans: come on, first do the research then ask for funding, don't you know anything?]
trans: - huh, I never heard of this! Some new stuff. Speculative.
Oy! He wants full postdoc for three years?
Who does this guy think he is?
this is a very competitive research field, very ambitious, not clear work can be…
catdynamics | May 4, 2008some time ago I made an off-cuff comment to a colleague that he "had been lucky".
He reacted badly to this, and rather curtly told me he resented being told he had been lucky, he had worked for his success and earned it.
At the time I shrugged it off - no big deal, he was being a bit oversensitive.
Sorry, dood, it was a bit of an asshole thing to say.
It also had some truth. There was luck involved.
There are several different modes of operation in science: there are astonishing brilliant breakthroughs, observational or theoretical, stuff that no one saw coming; there are timely…
catdynamics | April 29, 2008Gorgeous Spitzer Space Telescope Image of Ω Centauri
Martha Boyer at the University of Minnesota got Spitzer images of Omega Cen, combines with ground based imaging from the Blanco 4m.
The goal was to find dust rich red giant stars, those are the red/yellow stars in the image, with the main sequence coloured blue.
Omega Centauri, classified as a globular cluster, has been known for some time to have multiple stellar generations, which is unusual for a globular. It also is suspected to have a central intemediate mass black hole, inferred from the rising central stellar velocity dispersion…
catdynamics | April 28, 2008Physics used to be simple: the universe was eternal, static and predictable...
but there were dark clouds on the horizon.
First there was uncertainty, evidence of decay. Lack of conservation.
Then all became relative. Transmutable, interchangable, in a revolutionary way.
There was sudden change, lack of predictability.
A statistical world. Only identical mass aggregates mattered.
Some gathered collectively, others became exclusive. There were hints of underlying degeneracies.
Evidence was found that things were falling apart, despite noble attempts to maintain our world stationary.
First…
catdynamics | April 28, 2008Is APOD for the iPod.
Seriously. A neat little web accessible archive of the public subset of the APOD archive, continuosly updated, bundled for a quick iPod upload.
With an index, please.
catdynamics | April 24, 2008I was discussing the "Landscape" in string theory, as it relates to modern cosmology in class, and the students first reaction was: "what is all the fuss about"?
It seemed a bit mystifying to them that the community was having such angst over the issue.
So... I was trying to explain the metaphysical and philosophical angles, and why it got people agitated, and made the natural, if potentially ill-advised, comparison with religion.
This was one of these issues, said I, which seem terribly important at the time to the participants, but, no doubt, will seem all very silly in the future, much as…
catdynamics | April 24, 2008Carnival of Space #51 at Astro Engine now.
Next week is the big one year anniversary edition...
catdynamics | April 23, 2008Someone is getting lucky and the laser is getting hot
from the Hotel Mauna Kea folks
catdynamics | April 21, 2008Welcome to classical football 101.
This class will cover classical football from a historical perspective, starting with 17th century english village contests.
We will then cover the development of association football and rugby football, through to the emergence of the modern conceptualization of the game in the late 19th century, with particular emphasis on the role of the grid, the introduction of the "forward pass" and the role of equipment improvement in improving the game in the early 20th century.
We will cover the early Ivy League, in detail, and the post-World War II rise of "…
catdynamics | April 17, 2008The 2008 Astrobiology Science Conference is over.
There were six plenary sessions and six parallel topical sessions with typically 8-9 sessions each. Plus townhall meetings, public events and receptions.
I made it to only five topical sessions, including the two I was co-chair of and the one my ex-student co-chaired. I missed the icy moons session this morning, I hear the Enceladus talks were awesome.
This morning's plenary session featured talks by Bains on Weird Life and Benner on experimental biogenesis.
Bains gave a very nice presentation on non-carbon/water based options, over the…
catdynamics | April 17, 2008The Astrobiology Science Conference sponsors a student poster competition,
this year the top four posters got cash prizes, thanks to a generous donation.
Fourth prize was $250...
third prize was $750 and second prize was $1250, if I caught the numbers rattled off correctly. There were more and larger prizes than previously announced, thanks to donation.
The first prize, the Frank Drake Prize, was a couple of thousand dollars, and was won by Penn State grad student Tsubasa Otake for his poster "Theoretical Investigation of Equilibrium and Surface Adsorption Effects on Mass-dependent…
catdynamics | April 17, 2008GLAST was due to be launched next month.
Apparently the launch is on hold, they hope to have the issues resolved soon and a new launch date scheduled.
catdynamics | April 17, 2008The "Super-Earth" topical session at the Astrobiology Science Conference wasn't quite the "Woodstock" of astrobio, but it was pretty good.
There were many a famous pundit sitting on the floor between rows of seats or crammed standing up against the wall when came in to the room thinking they could do the usual trick of catching a talk here and there in different sessions, casually wandering in-and-out.
The Super-Earth session was scheduled in one of the small meeting rooms, with seats for about 50, but closer to 100 people turned up.
The science is still wide open, but there is some…
catdynamics | April 16, 2008the Earth is oxidized, not just because there is free oxygen in the atmosphere, but also because the rocks are predominantly silicon oxides
there has been some speculation about "carbon planets", but not much detailed modeling
now we're getting there.
There were several presentations on carbon chemistry and formation of rocky planets with reduced surface chemistry.
Results suggest for C/O > 0.8 reduced carbon can dominate the chemistry of the terrestrial planets with some interesting implications.
It is possible to have autocatalytic chemistry on micro grains, with carbon chemistry on the…
catdynamics | April 15, 2008I love going to meetings where I can learn totally new stuff.
One of the joys of astrobiology is that I can wander into a session on some research way outside my specialty and learn something new and interesting.
It is like being a student again.
I also like disciplinary workshops, and big in-field meetings, don't get me wrong.
In an ideal world my conference trips would be roughly 1/3 workshops on something I am personally actively working on, preferably small workshops; another 1/3 would be to big meetings in astrophysics, giving overview and context, getting caught up on news and what is…
catdynamics | April 15, 2008Here is an astronomy ranking for the US
CA 46
MD 20
AZ 14
MA 11
NY 7
PA 7
TX 6
WA 6
DC 5
HI 5
MI 5
NJ 5
FL 4
TN 4
IL 3
OH 3
CO 2
GA 2
IN 2
MN 2
NM 2
VA 2
CT 1
MO 1
NV 1
SC 1
WI 1
0 for everyone else
success rates, excluding the zeros, were from 50% for GA to less than 10% for CO.
Anyone who tried 8 or more got some.
About a quarter goes to CA, about twice the mean per capita.
catdynamics | April 15, 2008The number of the CAN is 38
38 is the number of the CAN.
Second largest. Not as many as I feared.
Good luck everyone.