Harvest
There’s a lot of joyful knife-work in my future. #bolognese #summersalad –cvj
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Category Archives: dialogues
Decoding the Universe!
I realised just now that I entirely forgot (it seems) to post about an episode of PBS’ show Nova called “Decoding the Universe: Cosmos” which aired back in the Spring. I thought they did a good job of talking about some of the advances in our understanding that have happened over the last 50 years (the idea is that it is the 50th anniversary of the show) in areas of astrophysics and cosmology. I was a contributor, filmed at the top of Mount Wilson at the Observatory where Hubble made his famous discoveries about the size of the universe, and its expansion. I talk about some of those discoveries and other ideas in the show. Here’s a link to the “Decoding the Universe” site. (You can also find it on YouTube.)
If you follow the link you’ll notice another episode up there: “Decoding the Universe: Quantum”. That’s a companion they made, and it focuses on understanding in quantum physics, connecting it to things in the everyday world. and also back to black holes and things astrophysical and cosmological. It also does a good job of shining a light on many concepts.
I was also a contributor to this episode, and it was a real delight to work with them in a special role: I got to unpack many of the foundational quantum mechanical concepts (transitions in atoms, stimulated emission, tunnelling, etc) to camera by doing line drawings while I explained – and kudos […] Click to continue reading this post
Westminster Wonders
Never toured the inside of the Houses of Parliament before, seeing all the red and green colour coded areas (lords and commons – look at the benches next time you see debates in either place) and busts and statues of some of the shapers, for better or worse, of much … Click to continue reading this post
The Life Scientific Interview
After doing a night bottle feed of our youngest in the wee hours of the morning some nights earlier this week, in order to help me get back to sleep I decided to turn on BBC Sounds to find a programme to listen to… and lo and behold, look what had just aired live! The programme that I’d recorded at Broadcasting House a few weeks ago in London.
So it is out now. It is an episode of Jim Al-Khalili’s excellent BBC Radio 4 programme “The Life Scientific”. The show is very much in the spirit of what (as you know) I strive to do in my work in the public sphere (including this blog): discuss the science an individual does right alongside aspects of the broader life of that individual. I recommend listening to […] Click to continue reading this post
What a Week!
I’m sitting, for the second night in a row, in a rather pleasant restaurant in Oxford, somewhere on the walk between the physics department and my hotel. They pour a pretty good Malbec, and tonight I’ve had the wood-fired Guinea Fowl. I can hear snippets of conversation in the distance, telling me that many people who come here are regulars, and that correlates well with the fact that I liked the place immediately last night and decided I’d come back. The friendly staff remembered me and greeted me like a regular upon my return, which I liked. Gee’s is spacious with a high ceiling, and so I can sit away from everyone in a time where I’d still rather not be too cavalier with regards covid. On another occasion I might have sought out a famous pub with some good pub food and be elbow-to-elbow with students and tourists, but the phrase “too soon” came to mind when I walked by such establishments and glanced into the windows.
However, I am not here to do a restaurant review, although you might have thought that from the previous paragraph (the guinea fowl was excellent though, and the risotto last night was tasty, if a tiny bit over-salted for my tastes). Instead I find myself reflecting on […] Click to continue reading this post
Back East
[I was originally going to use the title “Back Home”, but then somehow this choice had a resonance to it that I liked. (Also reminds me of a lovely Joshua Redman album…)] So I am back in London, my home town. And since I’ve got 8 hour jet lag, I’m … Click to continue reading this post
Arrival!
A major part of the reason I’ve been very quiet here since the last post is because I was working on a different kind of project that has in fact taken up much of my bandwidth during the last many months. This has been very welcome, as there is a … Click to continue reading this post
Talking at Fermilab!
This evening at 7:30pm Central time, come to Fermilab (online) for a public talk I’ll give about shaking up how we present serious scientific ideas in books for the public. It should be fun! The information is here. -cvj
Pi Day!
It’s pi day today! Don’t forget to celebrate! Options include walking around in circles at 1:59pm, baking a pie, eating pie, etc! Or maybe explain what pi is to somebody… I won’t list irrational behaviour as there’s a bit too much of that already… –cvj (Above image snapped from a … Click to continue reading this post
A Dialogue about Art and Science!
On Saturday (tomorrow), I’ll be talking with science writer Philip Ball at the Malvern Festival of Ideas! The topic will be Science and Art, and I think it will be an interesting and fun exchange. It is free, online, and starts at 5:15 pm UK time. You can click here for the details.
I’ll talk a little bit about how I came to create the non-fiction science book The Dialogues, using graphic narrative art to help frame and drive the ideas forward, and how I really wanted to re-shape what is the norm for a popular science book, where somehow using just prose to talk about serious scientific ideas has become regarded as the pinnacle of achievement – this runs counter to so many things, not the least being the fact that scientists themselves don’t just use prose to communicate with each other!
But anyway, that’s just the beginning of it all. Philip and I will talk about […] Click to continue reading this post
Reunion
Revisiting an old friend you might recognize. (And discovering that my old inking/shading workflow was just fine. – I’d been experimenting with other approaches and also just getting back into the saddle, as it were. I’ve found that I’d already landed on this approach for good time-cost/benefit reasons.) -cvj
Taking a Breath
Felt like one of the best things to sit and do with family on the morning after the day before…
Sunday Sketching
A shot of a (relatively) quick sketch in progress on Sunday, done with a dipping ink pen, and then splashing on some watercolour. Mostly just knocking rust off the sketching machinery (haven’t used these tools in a long while), and relaxing for some moments between one thing and the next … Click to continue reading this post
Conjunction
[caption id="attachment_19762" align="aligncenter" width="499"]
Jupiter (with some moons) and Saturn, 21st December 2020 (click for larger view) [/caption]
Jupiter (with some moons) and Saturn, 21st December 2020 (click for larger view) [/caption]
But… while the viewing on the 21st (the peak of the conjunction) was perfect, seeing three of the Galilean moons, and the glorious rings of Saturn, very clearly, getting a decent through-the-lens photo was not so trouble-free. I was dissatisfied with the roughs of the photos I got that night, with lots of blurring and aberrations that I felt I should have been able to overcome. So I spent the next day taking the telescope entirely apart, checking everything, and trying to colimate it properly, and testing schemes for better vibration stabilisation of the camera. I was ready for another session of photographing the next night, but it was cloudy, with only about […] Click to continue reading this post
Repaired and Ready!
Well, I did what I said I’d try in the previous post. And it worked! I had a great time viewing the conjunction. I hope you did too if you found a moment and clear skies My photography was hampered by either poor stabilisation of the camera or a misalignment … Click to continue reading this post
