defjaf
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Blake and Newton
Polymath author Peter Ackroyd was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s “Start the Week”, discussing his new biography of Isaac Newton. Ackroyd contrasted Newton to one of his previous biographical subjects, William Blake, who detested Newton and all that he did: I must Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Mans I will not Reason…
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Shameless
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By now both of my loyal readers will have noted the subtle addition of a teeny-tiny box over on the right-hand side, courtesy of Google. Yes, folks, advertising. More of an experiment than a money-making scheme for sure, but do feel encouraged to click your way over to the advertisers’ sites. I do note that…
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SALT
The New York Times, recently redesigned (discussed ad nauseum, notably by Slate’s Jack Shafer), has an article about SALT, the South African Large Telescope, now the Southern hemisphere’s largest telescope. This is just one of a series of scientific and technological investements being made in South Africa (by combinations of the South African and “western”…
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Minos observes neutrino mass
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More evidence for neutrino mass has been seen by the MINOS Experiment in the Soudan mine in Minnesota. More precisely, the experiment extends and corroborates evidence for neutrino mass that has been gathering over the past 40 years, speeding up mightily in the last decade. The first evidence was the deficit of neutrinos from the…
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Eclipse sick day
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Sorry I’ve been so quiet lately! The term is over, and our version of Spring Break has begun — more time for blog posts. Without any pressing teaching engagements, I’m home sick from work today. Instead of doing what I ought (getting rest, or at least reading my students’ excellent PhD theses), I spent a…
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WMAP
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As promised, the team behind the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite have released their lovely new results. WMAP measures fluctuations in the CMB (which I’ve already written about a lot), and in 2003 they released high-resolution, high-sensitivity maps of the CMB over the whole sky. Today, they updated those maps, and also released new…
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WMAP results due soon!
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After a couple of years of waiting, the team behind the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite seem ready to release some new results. WMAP measures fluctuations in the CMB (which I’ve already written about a lot), and in 2003 they released high-resolution, high-sensitivity maps of the CMB over the whole sky. (New results have…
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King of Some Media
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Print: I was interviewed yesterday by the Daily Express, about a recent Gamma-Ray Burst that occurred when the universe was under a billion years old (less than a tenth its present age). GRBs are thought to be from “Collapsars”, the explosions of massive, rapidly rotating stars. This observation, originally by the Swift Satellite, then followed…
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You get what you pay for
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There’s a report on the BBC that the Labour party may have given out a large number of “honours” (Knighthoods, Lordships, peerages, etc.) to their biggest donors. Maybe it’s my (small-‘R’) republican tendencies coming out, but, um, who cares? Seems better than, say, giving out political favors. Or contracts to run the very successful operation…
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