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Transit of Venus: the graphic novel
Next week, on 5-6 June, the planet Venus will transit in front of the Sun. It’s the kind of event that lots of astronomers, professional and amateur, go a little misty-eyed over.But in this particular...
View ArticleScience: Not Just A Girl Thing
A few days ago, the European Commission launched a new project aimed at getting teenage girls interested in science as part of its Women in Research and Innovation initiative. It’s called “Science:...
View ArticlePeer review, Open Access and the Arxiv
In recent months it’s started to look like the UK is getting serious about open access: several high profile scientists and members of the government have spoken out in support of making publicly...
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One Small Step
As a 30-something, I grew up with the Moon landing firmly established in the collective mind, yet equally firmly it was a thing of the past. The names of the pioneers who made the first adventurous...
View ArticleEqual Opportunities: Not Just a Women’s Issue
Yesterday was Ada Lovelace Day, where the interwebs celebrates women in science, engineering and technology. In past years I’ve written a little something for the occasion, but as I was travelling...
View ArticleScience Online: The Good, the Bad and the Crazy
In 2010, astrophysics professor Pavel Kroupa at the University of Bonn – he of the stellar Initial Mass Function - published a paper in which he highlighted problems with the Standard Model of...
View ArticleCall for Proposals at the IAU Development Office
For a few years now, the International Astronomical Union has had a dedicated office to promote astronomy as a “tool” for development, to encourage astronomy activities in countries where perhaps it...
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Sweaty in the Stars
Pretty astronomy pictures are not why we do astronomy, but they sure are a lovely side product of our scientific research. Even for the professionals, the beauty of the cosmos never really gets old....
View ArticleAstronomers Heart Open Coding
Open collaborative coding in Astronomy from skendrewLast Monday I travelled to London to give a talk at a meetup hosted by FutureGov on Github for Government, in trendy Shoreditch. GitHub being, of...
View ArticleVideo tour of the E-ELT
Check out this nice video about the European Extremely Large Telescope made by Brady Haran (he of the excellent Sixty Symbols videos).I like that it gives informal background and history, away from the...
View ArticleStargazing Live Portsmouth
For a few years now the BBC have run a big live astronomy event in January, called Stargazing Live. In previous years I’ve always followed online, jealously from across the Channel, sans television. So...
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Little Green Man’s Guide to the Galaxy
This weekend, Oxford Astrophysics is taking a field trip. No, not to a telescope or a conference for once: we’re going to a music festival! A few months ago, our DPhil. student and dotAstronomer Ruth...
View ArticleBeyond .Astronomy
A lot has happened in the 6 years since Rob Simpson organised the first .Astronomy meeting in Cardiff – for one, he didn’t know it would be “the first” of anything at that time! After very successful...
View ArticleDon’t Look at the Sun
Tomorrow morning we’ll be treated to the rare sight of a near-total solar eclipse. I hope so at least; the weather forecast is looking a bit dicey at the moment. Still, I plan to be outside between 8...
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