D-Branes in Paperback!
Look what arrived the other day! More later…. [Update: There was never meant to be a paperback. They told me this. The reason
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Author Archives: Clifford
Mama Never Said There’d Be Two Contiguous Days Like This
So yesterday continued the stretch of unfortunate events. I decided to hide and work on the paper to make up for the lost time from the day before. Got a good start, and then after a couple of hours, the computer started its weird behaviour. Slow….. applications hanging up for … Click to continue reading this post
From Dwarf Planets to Hobbit Galaxies
I learned from an article in New Scientist by David Shiga that there have been recently found four more small satellite galaxies of our Milky Way galaxy. The satellites are dwarf galaxies a few hundred to a few thousand light years across. The tiny galaxies are thought to be the … Click to continue reading this post
Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This
Oh Boy. So it started this morning with me making some plans to do things on the bike, starting with a visit to the Hollywood Farmer’s market to get some supplies (especially some more superstring beans, which are delicious!) and meet a friend. Idea would be then to -after excellent … Click to continue reading this post
Blue Asymmetry
I’ve temporarily forgotten the name of this beautiful flower. I’ll let you know when I recall it. [Update: Athena worked it out and reminded me….Scaveola, or fan flower] Its blue is more dramatic than the camera has captured. It nods somewhat more to purple than is suggested here. It grows … Click to continue reading this post
The Lighter Side of Pluto…
…And from serious protests of the previous post to humourous (fictional!) ones. Go check out the Worth1000 photoshop competition on the subject, linked here. Some of them are great! Here’s one I liked: Creator’s caption: “Don’t argue with him, the man’s a genius.” -cvj
A Glimmer of Hope for Pluto?
So despite the announcement yesterday, reliable sources tell me that some members of the astronomy community are hoping that there is still maybe a small window of opportunity for Pluto. Some members of the community are preparing a petition which protests the IAU planet definition! They don’t agree with the … Click to continue reading this post
Spinach Blogging
I learned a new term from a producer at a television studio the other day (in a context I do not know if I’m allowed to blog about yet): “Spinach TV”. I love it. This is a term expressing the idea of television programming that is supposed to be “good … Click to continue reading this post
Bleep Bleep Yet Again
If, like I am, you’re tired of people getting ensnared by the nonsense in the “What the Bleep…” movie, and asking you to explain it….(I scared myself just now by looking at the technorati tags for What the Bleep and Bleep…yikes)… please please help out Jennifer Saylor, a blogger who … Click to continue reading this post
So Do We Need a New Planetary Mnemonic?
So you’ll recall that when we thought we had twelve planets we started trying to think of new mnemonics to help people remember the planets’ ordering. For example, from Yvette: My Very Educated Mother Can’t Justify Someone Using New Planetary Conventions… oh no, they haven’t named the last one yet!!! … Click to continue reading this post
Eight Planets!
Ok… Let’s try this again shall we? It’s official! There are eight planets in our solar system. The vote has taken place. Last week’s proposals have been rejected. Pluto has been demoted, apparently. They were voting on the following (I got this here): 1) A planet1 is a celestial body … Click to continue reading this post
It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over
The saga continues. Nobody yet knows how many planets we have. There has been fierce argument at the International Astronomical Union. As a result, the definitions of last week have been revised. “Pluton” has been discarded as a term (partly because of the clash with a geological term, a clash … Click to continue reading this post
International Cooperation Can Work
Apparently the hole in the ozone layer above Antartica is stabilizing. Some of you will remember the late 80s, when the hole was discussed a lot in the popular press. It was a huge problem. The hole we made meant that we were losing our protection from the sun’s ultraviolet … Click to continue reading this post
Why I’m Sometimes Sure We’re Doomed
Some days I’m optimistic, and I think we’ll change our behaviour in time. We’ll be able to stop destroying our environment quite so recklessly. We’ll stop our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. We’ll stop fighting ridiculous wars over such fuels…. etc. Other days, stuff like this happens, and … Click to continue reading this post
MOND Laid to Rest?
Well, the press conference I told you about has happened! This is so exciting! There’s new and very direct proof from observations of the Bullet Cluster with the Chandra X-ray Observatory that Dark Matter really exists. So the need to make modifications to how gravity works on large scales in … Click to continue reading this post
