SAM MORRELL

Astrophysics
Environmental Intelligence
Computer Science

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#InternationalWomensDay

March 8, 2015

You may have noticed that today, Sunday 8th March 2015, is International Womens Day. This sounded like an ideal time to write about some exceptional scientists whom I greatly admire; who just also so happen to be women. Rosalind Franklin The Woman Who Discovered the Structure of DNA The discovery of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) is the...

6EQUJ5 – Decoding the Wow! Signal

December 11, 2014

Nothing quite spikes human interest like a good old fashioned mystery, and the the events at a radio telescope in Delaware, Ohio in 1977 could qualify as just that. The voluntary radio astronomer on duty, Dr. Jerry Ehman, noticed a signal that has gone down in history as one of the great puzzlers of the...

Dust in the Ointment

October 18, 2014

It’s nice every now and then to have a slight reminder why your work is valuable. At the moment I’m part of a research team, working in the astrophysics department at the University of Exeter,  that are studying dust. I know exactly what you’re thinking, how interesting can dust be? The truth is that interstellar...

The Basics of Radiative Transfer

April 28, 2014

It’s deep in exam season for me at the moment, which means that if you try talking to me, chances are that I’ll have my head in a book. I talked a while back about solving radiative transfer problems with Monte Carlo methods, but I never actually went very far into how radiative transfer works....

Mini Javascript Hackathon – Tix Clock

July 31, 2013

I’ve spent a lot of time recently writing C++, Python and Shell Script. These languages are great, but I fancied taking a break from them to go back to my old stomping ground. Earlier today I remembered about the existence of a cool little, almost completely useless, piece of geek tech known as the Tix...

Gambling with Statistics – Monte Carlo Methods

July 20, 2013

Hey all! In my recent work I’ve been using numerical simulations involving radiative transfer, which basically  means transferring energy via radiation such as light; in the form of photon packets. The way these simulations are run is via a method known quite widely in the physics world called ‘Monte Carlo Methods’. It took me a...

Barenaked Ladies – My Alternative ‘Best of’

May 13, 2012

There’s something that has always really bugged me out the music industry; greatest hits compilations. These albums supposedly consist of the best music that an artist has done. However, for the most part I’ve found this to be radically untrue. The way that most of these albums are compiled is by looking at the chart...

What I’ve been listening to – Jan / Feb 2012

February 23, 2012

I’ve been once again neglecting my blogging duties, nothing new there, right? I thought I’d ease back into it with doing a nice simple post. Let’s get going! The Popular Thing – Jukebox the Ghost Seriously! This song is excellent to the highest order. I picked this up from a friend’s tumblr blog. I just...

Lesson Learned from the First Term

January 11, 2012

Today has been the my first exam at university, I’m not going to lie, I’m not very confident about how it went. It seemed like the writer of the paper in question had in-fact decided to almost avoid everything I’d revised. This crippling blow has forced me to look back over my techniques over the...

New Years Day Star Trek Marathon – 2012

January 1, 2012

Hey all, as has been a tradition for me for many years, I must have a Star Trek marathon. It just has to happen. I generally do this on Christmas Eve Eve, but owing to being confined to a hospital bed after an operation that day, it was not an option. So, I decided to...

What I’ve Been Listening To – September / October 2011

October 13, 2011

It’s that time of decade again! I don’t know if anyone actually cares about reading these posts but I like sharing them anyway. I can go back over them and see what I liked listening to back in time. If nothing else it’s a musical bookmark for myself. Before I get any wise cracks about...

Happy Birthday @Voyager2!

August 17, 2010

If there’s one thing in modern society which I think is very much overlooked it’s the big black thing above us… no, not the clouds of doubt over the houses of parliament! I means space. Back in the heyday of space exploration everybody was excited about being the first into space, the first to the...

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