Why Society Needs Astronomy and Cosmology: a Gresham College Guest Lecture
This is the text accompanying a Gresham College Guest Lecture I gave on March 15th 2016. Audio recording of the lecture: Video of the lecture available here “One day, Sir, you may tax it!” In 1850 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Gladstone, reportedly visited Michael Faraday’s laboratory at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. […]
Papers of interest on the arXiv today – Sept 26th 2016
Two interesting papers on the methodology side today: A ML source detection method that detects ultra-faint streaks below the pixel level noise (arXiv:1609.07158). They call it “ML” but in reality it uses MCMC to look at the Bayesian posterior (which is arguably a good thing!) and even Bayesian model comparison (in the BIC variety) to determine […]
Butchery or beauty? Explaining complex science using only the most common 1,000 words in English
A version of this post appeared on the British Council’s VOICES blog on Nov 12th 2014 Would you try and cross the South Pole wearing only flip-flops? Or row across the Atlantic on an inflatable swimming pool? Or describe the beauty and mystery of the Universe using only the most common 1,000 words in English? As a […]
g-ASTRONOMY: The cosmos at the tip of your tongue
Astrophysics provides us with an exciting, engaging way to talk about the science of the cosmos and its importance for society. Posted on the IOP blog on Sept 20th 2016 Interest for astronomy and astrophysics is also one of the most-often cited reasons by students taking up physics at undergraduate level. But by its nature […]
14 yr old aspiring writer wins #upgoer5 Mr Santa competition!
In the run-up to Christmas and in collaboration with Imperial Fringe, I set up a competition for the best letter to Mr Santa written using only the most common 1,000 words in English, the idea behind my book, “The Edge of the Sky”. Among many excellent entries, one stood out: It was inspired, poetic and […]
Flux Dance Theatre: Weaving science into dance
I was very pleased to be able to facilitate the participation of Flux Youth Theatre to last May’s Imperial Festival, the youth company of the innovative Flux Dance Theatre. Ran by two energetic and dynamic dancers, Charlotte Hale and Emma Dodds, Flux Dance Theatre focuses on science and how to weave it into dance and […]
An event well worth the ticket – even a Ferengi would agree!
The annual World Science Fiction Convention begins on Thursday Aug 14th at London’s ExCeL, bringing together authors, artists, publishers, and fans of science fiction and fantasy. I’m excited to be participating in one of the stands in the Exhibitors Hall: “The Great Cosmic Show”, located at Stand 66 in the Exhibitors Hall of the Convention, sets […]
#IAS2014: Two manic weeks that surpassed all expectations
What’s more exciting than winning the World Cup, more nail-biting than the Wimbledon final, more rewarding than getting a Nobel Prize, and at least as fun as looking for dark matter in the sky? Taking part to the I’m a Scientist, Get me out of here, and getting through what I can only describe as a […]
Pigs beat dark energy 20:1
My friends at Catsnake tell me that their latest awesome video, about compassionate farming and the plight of pigs, got 4M views in a week. The awesome video we made together about dark energy got about 200,000 views, which seemed a lot at the time (and enough to win it the Berlin Viral Video Award). […]
