Top posts
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What would be the world’s best blog ever?
My vote will go to the Anne Frank’s diary. Yes, this was before the age of Internet. But Anne Frank planned to have it published as a testimony of her life during the Second World War. Her name came to my mind because her hiding place (Prinsengracht 268)...
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Lab's Days
I was recently attending a retreat of my current institute at a very nice location in Annecy. The aim of the retreat was to summarize the main results obtained the last five years but also the successes and problems that occurred. Each team showed their...
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Route maps in flight magazines
Today I travelled with Lufthansa. This has been a long time I have not flown with this airline. When I picked up the flight magazine and started looking at the company’s routes, an old story came to my mind. A few years ago I was travelling to Mauritius...
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Height: feeling short, average, or tall
I have been travelling these last few weeks and found out that it would a good idea to spend my waiting time at airports to write something for the blog. While travelling one thing you notice immediately is how different you are and look compared to people...
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“The structure of scientific revolution” by Thomas S. Kuhn, a hard-to-read essential book
I am an academic researcher and as anyone who belongs to a small community with all his unspoken rules, customs, and idiosyncrasies, I am curious but also a bit scared to read about how we, as a community, behave. When I met someone who is much more inclined...
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Open peer review
I do not usually read The Economist magazine. One may agree or not with the editorial standpoint of the magazine but it provides weekly international news contrary to national publications except the Courier international in France. The science section...
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Moving
One stressful human activity is definitively moving since our societies are mostly sedentary. Moving to the same country is already complicated, moving abroad to a town and country where we have never lived before is almost an adventure. What is the best...
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ABCD de l'égalité
Education of children is one of the most sensitive issues in our societies. Every parent is concerned and every parent has his or her own view. That makes consensus difficult. Debates on education also reflect the state of the society in a country. Divides...
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Personal website
Paradoxically my registration to social networks have been motivated by my professional life. I registered in Facebook because I was organizing a public talk. A recent grant application form asks about a website. I decided to buy the domain name www.astrowing.eu....
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The Big Bang Theory's actors salary
I just read that the actors of the TV show The Big Bang Theory are getting a pay-rise. They will earn around 1 million euros per episode. This is over 20 years of my current salary as researcher. The actors have definitively great talent and the show...
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Do we need to have a knowledge of philosophy of science to be a good scientist?
Things are never completely settled. I thought that after a PhD and a few articles I would be a seasoned researcher until I discussed with someone with a dual degree in astrophysics and philosophy. That troubled me. Did I miss something essential during...
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Rehearsal, critics, and presence
When we rehearse, either in preparation of an important scientific presentation or for a play, we have to leave our pride at home. Most critics are advices to get the best out of us. At our play rehearsal, a few fellow actors or actresses seem to have...
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Scientific presentation and graphic design
Graphs are central in scientific communication but most scientists are not trained in graphic design. It is therefore not surprising to see a large scale in the quality of the figures and slides that are shown in papers and presentations. The same way...
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Is the show “The Big Bang theory” good or bad for the public’s perception of astronomers?
Socially, scientists are like the general population. A few may lack general social skills, other may be particularly outgoing but most of them are just plain “normal”. Sitcoms are designed to exaggerate contrasting personalities to create easy comic...
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Loneliness
The skeleton of an old woman has been found 7 years after her death, not in an isolated house in a small village. No, she was found in an apartment block in town. She died alone and isolated. Studies show that more and more people suffer from loneliness...
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Writing nonfictions
A major aspect of my work as astrophysicists and leisure involves reading and writing. Reading and writing reports, scientific articles, press releases, emails, blogs. Like many I was struggling in putting in words my thoughts, especially in English,...
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Thinking outside the box
Thinking inside the box is easy and brings a sense of security. Thinking outside the box is more challenging but it is the essence of progress. We praise innovations in technology, science, design, or art, but at the same time our societies tend to be...
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Foreign language and living abroad
One of the keys for an enjoyable life in a foreign country is the mastery of the language. Many complain that economic migrants tend to stay within their community, do not interact much with the local population, or do not speak well the language of the...
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International Woman's Day
Last Saturday was the International Woman's Day. Having such a day is symptomatic that something has to change in our societies but that at the same time it means that we are aware of the problem. Everyday should be the day of the woman. Everyday we (the...
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Learning to watch and to speak
I would have never predicted that I would like so much my creative hobbies. By devoting the same focus and determination that I had to learn mathematics, physics, chemistry, or doing research I endeavor to master creative photography or acting. I like...
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Deadlines and procrastination
I recently changed my email signature with a quote from one of my favorite philosophers, Lucius Annaeus Seneca. The quote says “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”. Having...
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Science and non-science project funding
As mentioned already in a previous blog, being in an academic environment opens up the possibility to meet new people from different backgrounds and experience. A few month ago, a new researcher arrived at my institute in Grenoble. She has a dual philosophy-science...
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Giving a scientific oral presentation: a pleasure or an ordeal?
This is my first blog and I suppose that I should expose my motivations. This blog will essentially focus on my personal account of a scientist’s daily life in the fascinating field of Astronomy and Astrophysics. I will avoid as much as possible actual...
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Painting and Astronomy, 19th and 20th century
Depictions of the sky night are rare in Western paintings. An almost accurately correct representation of the night sky is Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night over the Rhone on display at the Orsay museum just across the river Seine from the Louvre museum....
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Being a post-doc in a foreign country, the view of a “professional foreigner”
As a child you spend years mastering your language or grasping your culture. It is not surprising that the younger you move to a new country, the easier you can adapt. Children absorb new ideas or new ways of doing things with enthusiasm. They are open...
