One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics is the origin of high energy cosmic rays. These were first discovered using an electrometer at the top of the Eiffel Tower in 1909 by Theodor Wulf. He showed that the radiation measured at the top of the tower (then the World’s tallest building) was greater than at [...]
Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
Ice Ice Baby
Posted in Astronomy, History, Science, Technology, tagged Cosmic Rays, Gamma Ray Bursters, Ice Cube, Ice Ice Baby, Neutrinos, Supernova, Vanilla Ice on 10/05/2012 | Leave a Comment »
Losing My Religion
Posted in Science, Technology, tagged Apple, Cuba, GPS, Havana, IPhone, iPhone4, iPhone4S, Malecon, R.E.M. on 24/04/2012 | 1 Comment »
This post is only peripherally about the wonderful R.E.M. song “Losing My Religion“, it is mainly about losing my iPhone4 whilst abroad. [In fact, it is barely about the song at all.] At the end of March I went to Cuba. Unfortunately during my stay there I managed to leave my iPhone in a taxicab [...]
An ecosystem under strain
Posted in Environment, Science, tagged Silent Running on 25/11/2011 | Leave a Comment »
A few weeks ago, as I metioned in a previous blog, I was on a panel discussing the science fiction film Silent Running. Also on the panel was Dr. Rob Thomas of Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences. Rob has kindly given me permission to reproduce here his comments on some of the issues raised in [...]
The birthplace of modern astrophysics
Posted in Astronomy, History, Physics, Science, tagged 40-inch, Astrophysics, George Ellery Hale, Refractor, The Astrophysical Journal, World's largest telescope on 15/11/2011 | 6 Comments »
Last Thursday (10th of November) I gave a talk to Swansea Astronomical Society. This is the 3rd or 4th time I have talked to them, and I was asked by Dr. Steve Wainwright to talk about the early history of the Universty of Chicago‘s Yerkes Observatory. I worked at Yerkes from 1995 to 2001, during [...]
Terra-forming
Posted in Environment, Science, Technology on 02/11/2011 | 3 Comments »
Last night I was part of a panel of 4 people discussing various aspects of the 1972 Sci-fi film “Silent Running“. Silent Running trailer This event was organised by BRASS, the Cardiff University centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society. It was run as part of Cardiff University’s sustainability week. The [...]
