Happy New Year!!

January 1, 2015
May 2015 bring all of my friends, family, and loyal readers all the health, happiness, and prosperity that they deserve. And may we all get together again as friends when the year comes to the end one year from now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
 

Year in Review

December 31, 2014
The year 2014 is coming to a close, and what an amazing year it has been for the scientific community.

January started off with a bang - literally - as a supernova was spotted in the night sky that was visible with the naked eye. It is rare to have one in our local part of the galaxy, and this was spectacular even without a telescope. The year continued to be a fun one for amateur astronomers, with April seeing a lunar eclipse, an evening of meteor showers, and Mars in opposition. Through the ...
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Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2014
Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family, and to all of the many friends I have made online through my various ventures. You are all very special people, and I am honoured to know all of you.

Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!
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Organic Mars

December 19, 2014
The team running the NASA Curiosity probe has made an amazing announcement this week, with the confirmation that the little rover has discovered organic compounds on the planet Mars. (Scientists thought they had found similar compounds two years ago, but at the time there was uncertainty whether the tests were correct)

And while this is still a long way from claiming there is life on Mars, it is worth noting that these compounds on Earth were required to form primordial life. Most likely they ...
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Posted In : Astronomy 

 

The Geminids

December 14, 2014
For those of you in areas with clear skies tonight, there is another celestial show happening. Sometime overnight the Geminid Meteor shower will reach its peak.

The Geminid were first observed in 1862, and are believed to have originated with debris cast off by the Palladian asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon, making them one of only two major showers not caused by comets. If conditions are right, viewers can expect up to 150 meteors per hour. And because it is in the winter sky, it should be eas...
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Posted In : Astronomy 

 

New Horizons

December 6, 2014
It is another exciting day for the space sciences community. After almost nine years in transit, today the New Horizon probe will be sent the wake-up signal and will prepare for its mission to Pluto. Let us hope that it goes better than the last long distance space probe...

The New Horizon probe was launched in January 2006. Once it started on its journey to the outer solar system, its electronics systems were shut down to avoid wear and power usage and to avoid the need to monitor it constant...
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Posted In : Astronomy 

 

Quantum Immortality

December 5, 2014
A friend of mine asked me a few days about something that he had heard in a quantum physics lecture, feeling that he had surely misunderstood the lecturer's comments. And being quantum mechanics, which is bizarre at the best of times, that is always a possibility. However the comment in question is in fact an interesting aspect of quantum physics which is still hotly debated by the experts.

According to quantum mechanics, you are immortal and will never die.

Now that the quantum physicists have...
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Posted In : Philosophy 

 

Two New Baryons

November 19, 2014
More news from the particle physics community with the announcement by physicists at the Large Hadron Collider that they have produced and detected two new particles which have never been seen before. (It should be noted though that these particles have existed before in nature, produced by high energy cosmic rays in the atmosphere, but they decay too quickly to be observed and studied)

However before the news media starts writing headlines, it should also be made clear that this is a minor an...
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Posted In : Particle Physics 

 

The Three Game Paradox

November 15, 2014
In my continuing series on curious mathematical paradoxes, I have reviewed several interesting and counter-intuitive phenomena in both mathematics and statistics. Recently a couple of readers of my blog asked me about the Three Game Paradox. I must admit that I don't see this as a true paradox, but rather simple statistics, but it is still interesting and as such I present it here for your pleasure...

Suppose that you have just joined a chess club, and you are really a novice player. It seems ...
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Posted In : Mathematics 

 

Philae Updates

November 15, 2014
The excitement and jubilation of the Rosetta team and the scientific community seems to have turned sour today. The Philae lander seems to be in serious trouble, and is not expected to live much longer.

Just a few days ago (aka Wednesday) there was celebration as the Philae lander left the Rosetta orbiter after a decade travelling together, and started its descent toward the surface of comet Chury 67P. It landed where it should have, and started preparing to collect data. The technicians said ...
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Posted In : Astronomy 

 
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About Me


Dr. Chris Bird I am a theoretical physicist & mathematician, with training in electronics, programming, robotics, and a number of other related fields.

   

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