Top posts
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Edinburgh, a city that celebrates the artists, philosophers and scientists
Edinburgh is a town that celebrates its humanists, its writers, and its scientists instead of his kings, dictators, or war heroes. While visiting together the town, a visitor of mine from Germany pointed to a neo-gothic moment on Princes street, the main...
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Edinburgh the museum town and Berlin the living town
I visited Berlin and Edinburgh recently and I kept comparing them to each other. I like them both with their own unique characters. I wanted to write something more personal about Berlin but I could not. Then I decided to go to one of the cafes in Edinburgh...
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Berlin?
Traveling to Santiago from Grenoble is not as tedious than travelling to Hawaii or Australia. On my way to Santiago, I had a stop-over in Berlin. If you do not believe me, I have photographic evidence. I shot a statue of the bear, the symbol of Berlin,...
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Scottish Astrophysics Departments
A rare coincidence occurs between two major astrophysical institutes in Scotland. The Royal Observatory Edinburgh (ROE) and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at St-Andrews University are located in the close vicinity of world-famous old Golf course...
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My first amateur astronomy photos
I have attended many workshops and conferences. But the one I am attending in Santiago at the moment is the first one where I have the opportunity to practice astrophotography. Although I have been observing with many telescopes in the world (and in space)...
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Edinburgh has a new hero in town
Edinburgh has found a new hero to celebrate. Peter Higgs, who received the Nobel price for his prediction of the particle that provide the mass to matter, has joined Maxwell (and other scientists) in the list of local famous scientists. A portrait of...
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Platform 9 ¾
Astronomers travel quite often, either for work or because of the two-body problem. Waiting hours at airports or train stations is pretty common. Most airports are utterly boring architecture-wise but a few old train stations are worth a visit. One day...
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Berlin Golden Hat
At the dawn of human civilization astronomical knowledge brought a lot of prestige. I was in Berlin the last few days to celebrate the Saint-Silvestre and thought that a visit to a few museums was warranted. But even while on vacation I stumble on Astronomy-related...
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What is the most "exclusive hotel” in the world?
My cousin works in luxurious hotels and once he showed me a book about what he thought should be the most exclusive hotels on Earth. Those hotels have incredible architectures, outstanding restaurants, and top-notch service. But still he changed in mind...
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St Andrew’s day and winter blues
Google has a cunning way to teach trivia to the world via his doodles. Today’s doodle celebrates St Andrew’s day, the national day of Scotland. The Scots have devised a genius scheme to beat the autumn-winter blues. Winter blues is particularly acute...
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A mood for poems
I am a scientist, not at all a skilled writer or poete. When I am in the mood, I still like to give it a try with an astrophysicist's twist, off-course. At the telescope Oh mirror, powerful mirror, what will you let me stare at tonight? The youth of the...
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ALMA and the most enviable way to become a professor at MIT
What means “ALMA” for you? If you are an astronomer, you immediately think of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile. But if you are not, it may be the tunnel in Paris where Lady Diana had her fatal accident. If you are an historian, you may recognize...
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Why me? Experiencing discriminations
I am reviewing a book currently available in French only (“Pourquoi pas? L’expérience des discriminations” par François Dubet, Olivier Cousin, Eric Macé, et Sandrine Rui). It should not be too difficult for someone “trained” to review papers, observing...
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The Architecture of scientific discovery
In his essay “The Architecture of Happiness”, Alain de Botton explores how humans shape their surroundings to incorporate their desire of beauty, which ultimately leads to happiness. This begs the question: what would be the best architecture for an astronomical...
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Optimism, pessimism, realism, and stress
Optimism and stress are quite common character traits among astronomers. Unexpectedly, both are related. Our tendency to be optimistic about our ability to achieve a goal in a given amount of time, which is hard to determine in science, often results...
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Are scientisits immune from making logical fallacies?
Critical thinking is what makes a good scientist. But I have to admit that I never had a formal training on that subject and had to learn it by listening to an excellent podcast (http://www.theskepticsguide.org/). The lead podcaster Steven Novella has...
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Two-body, three-body, and N-body problem
I said that I will not talk about astronomical phenomena in this blog but I will do an exception about the so-called two-body problem in academia. Two-body problem exists outside academia and concerns couples with careers that require a physical separation....
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A little story
I had once a little mirror, a magical one. When I starred at it I could see dark spots. There were my fears. There were my worries. There were my bad feelings. I just needed to wipe the mirror and all were gone. Life was so easy. But one day I dropped...
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ALMA et encore ALMA
Two ALMA proposals. My original plan was zero. Usually zero is bad. Getting a zero mark at an exam is bad. Having zero euro on his bank account is bad. But for me this zero would have mean freedom, freedom to enjoy my week-end. How am I ending up writing...
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Remember, remember the 5th of December
When I say “ALMA proposal”, my colleagues respond ironically “good luck”. Not one, not two, but many of them. Strange because luck is probably one the last words you might expect when you talk about science. At first I thought that they actually meant...
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WiFi
I received a feedback about my blog. My blog is too depressing. The blog is about real events. I cannot really change what actually occurred. But I can ensure you that I am not particularly looking forward to a depressing day when I wake-up, on the contrary....
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Painting and astronomy, 2
The Christmas period is special for those of us who work far away from their family and friends. For me it is going back to Paris. I was looking forward to go new exhibitions or stare again at few of my favorite paintings. The Astronomer by Vermeer is...
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YouTube movies on disks and planet formation
I am a member of a modelling team of objects called protoplanetary disks where planets can form. We have produced a couple of Public Outreach movies on YouTube. Our reviewers think that we should advertise better our movies and get more hits. So do not...
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Improvisation
Among the most stressful but gratifying exercises at an acting course are the improvisations. One of the aims is to learn to be in the moment, forgetting the past mistakes, and not be thinking about the next line. Good actors have presence. Real life...
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Positive discrimination
The French government is currently debating about introducing positive discrimination (a great oxymoron and also- called affirmative action) measures in France. Like most other Western European countries, France has a sizeable fraction of his population...
