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Astronomers on the internet
I’m up in beautiful Edinburgh (perhaps my favorite city in the UK, even at this very dark time of year) fulfilling my duties as the chair of the Astrogrid Science Advisory group, at their latest project meeting. Astrogrid is part of the world wide effort to create a virtual observatory, a way for astronomers to…
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Existential Detectives and Bad Religion
“I ♥ Huckabees,” the new movie from David O. Russell, features Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman as “Jaffe & Jaffe, Existential Investigators.” (I’m always pleased to see my family name in lights.) Not a deeply philosophical movie, but entertaining and intelligent enough. Smarter than, say, this commentary from last weekend’s Guardian by Mike Purton, “Physics…
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Viva Hubble?
According to National Public Radio: Report Discourages NASA Plan to Save Hubble A confidential report commissioned by NASA has concluded that the space agency’s plan to use a robot to save the Hubble telescope is highly risky. The robot would install two new instruments and replace batteries and gyroscopes. But the report suggests NASA should…
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Big Eyed Beans from Venus
(First in a short series on Astro department Christmas parties) Just back from the Oxford Astronomy Department (where I proudly count myself as a visitor) Christmas/Holiday party. Aside from a fairly staggering amount of booze, featured entertainment was “Big-Eyed Beans From Venus”, a bluesy five-piece featuring students and postdocs from the astro group (and one…
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Science, Money and Teaching in Britain
With the closure of University departments throughout England (Chemistry at Exeter and Architecture at Cambridge just announced this week), and the Science Minister called to the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee today, UK science funding has been making headlines (or at least showing up on media radar) over the last couple of days. Currently, departmental…
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Cosmology and schnitzel
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Recently back from a trip to the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik outside of Munich, Germany, where I talked with colleagues about ESA‘s upcoming Planck Surveyor mission to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background (which we’re working on here at Imperial College), and, of course, eat such delicacies as wandererpfandl mit hirschbraten and weissbraten mit weissbier. More on…
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NASA’s Future: man or machine?
New York Times Editorial: NASA’s Budgetary Gift Horse: With its hands free to redistribute a hefty 2005 budget, the space agency should funnel more resources into its unmanned programs. Congress … granted NASA unprecedented authority to move funds about … to stitch together a viable program within the available resources. That puts a special burden…
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Picture of the day
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A detail from Leonardo’s “A Deluge.” (Courtesy The Queen of England, via The Guardian.)
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(Extraordinary Popular Delusions and) The Madness of Crowds
I arrived at Paddington Station this evening on my usual commute, to find a cluster of thirty-odd young people, swaying and dancing… silently. Looking closely, they were all listening to headphones, dancing to their own music. Onlookers were befuddled, smiling, snapping pictures with their camera-equipped mobile phones (like my jerky attempt here). A couple of…
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Boosting the economy
The London Evening Standard: Huge rise in cannabis use. Adam Curry, back in the UK!
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