Top posts
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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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“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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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...
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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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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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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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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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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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Working at night: astronomer or DJ?
When I say that I am an astronomer, many people asked if I really work at night. It is true that I observe at night while I am at a telescope. But this happens only at most once per year. Most of the time I sit in front of my computer during standard...
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Blame the scientists!
France was hit the last few days by a storm. The storm Dirk was not particularly powerful and France is normally well prepared to face those situations. What was not well anticipated was the flooding that hit a few cities. The controversy arose because...
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2013
It is probably time to reflect on the year 2013. Science-wise it was an extremely productive year despite a few moments of stress. Most importantly I am very glad to have met many great new people. Most astronomers are in the asymptotic part of the happiness...
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Past, Present, Future
Doing science is learning something everyday. But recently I am learning a lot about myself and about human behaviour by joining a theatre club. One requirement for being a good actor is presence. At the theatre course we trained ourselves to focus on...
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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...
