University Astronomy 101 in Your Pocket
Now that you have discovered how much you love astronomy, do you regret not paying attention in your college classes, or kick yourself for not even taking an Astronomy class when you had the chance? [...]
Hacking a Cat Box to Last Two Weeks Between Emptying
We have three cats. Two of them, 9 year old males, are at least 15 pounds and the third, a 2 year old female, that weights only 8 pounds, eats (and poops) like she is [...]
A Perspective from Picasso
Picasso was on a long train ride, on one of those trains that has seats facing each other. Across from him sat a man who recognized him, but said nothing for a good 30 minutes, [...]
Life Is Too Short To Drink Cheap Wine
For 35 years, I’ve occasionally drunk wine. For most of this time, I didn’t have much of a discriminating pallet, even with a few casual wine tasting classes and visits to wineries. And then I [...]
The Best BBQ Chicken in the World
The best BBQ chicken in the world is “beer in the butt” chicken. I heard about this way of cooking chicken on a grill many years ago, tried it and was hooked. Apparently, I am [...]
Could this be the Ideal Breakfast?
A bowl of instant oatmeal with a handful of blueberries could be one of the healthiest breakfasts to eat. It’s a great trade off between low calorie, filling, quick and easy and it’s probably pretty [...]
Fly High, Swim Deep
The signature line of Curt Hillfon, Swedish artist, 1943- “Whatever you do, do it well,” Curt Hillfon told me. “If you are a bird, fly high. If you are a fish, swim deep.” […]
A Moment of Tranquility in the Singapore Changi Airport
Experience an oasis of peace and calm communing with the butterflies, in the middle of one of the busiest airports in the world. […]
The Earliest Influences that Launched Me On My Life Paths
I was invited to talk to a group of six-graders on what influenced me when I was their age, to launch me on the path I followed through life. This gave me an excuse to [...]
Turn Sweat into Power-Grid Energy- is it Practical?
Workout cycle from PlugOut, a supplier of exercise equipment that turns your sweat into electricity. The last time I was at the gym walking on the treadmill, I looked around and saw dozens of people [...]
Area of a Circle with Simple Geometrical Model
Thomas Greenslade wrote a very simple article for the Physics Teacher in March 2011 sharing a beautiful, wooded model from the L E Knott Apparatus Company which illustrates, at a glance, the principle that the [...]
Is Hell Exothermic or Endothermic?
Sometimes it doesn’t matter if an urban legend is true or not if it sounds cute. This possibly made up story was reported here, and has made its way around the web multiple times. If [...]
What Drives a Writer?
Somewhere along my travels, I heard the following story that captures the essence of what drives a writer. […]
Gravitational Lensing in a Wine Glass
On May 20, 2009, Prof Patricia Burchat, the Chair of the Department of Physics at Stanford University, presented the last lecture in the 10th season of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures. She gave what I [...]
Modern Cosmology was Founded on Luck
The Hubble Constant, which describes the velocity-distance relationship for galaxies, is the foundation of modern cosmology. It establishes the time and distance scale of the universe and the dynamic nature of the galaxies since the [...]
Last Man on the Moon Speaks at Linda Hall Library
Harrison Schmitt, the last man to walk on the moon, spoke to a full house at the Linda Hall Library on Sept 2, 2009, as part of the “To the Moon and to the Planets [...]
Book Review: The Alchemy of the Heavens by Ken Croswell
Astrophysicists sometimes use familiar words, but in a very different way than we are used to. Take for example the term metal. To an astrophysicist, a metal is any element with an atomic mass greater [...]
Making Career Path Decisions
Last year, the convergence of two events gave me reason to articulate my recommendations on how to decide on a career path. Our niece stayed with us for more than a year and we watched [...]