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Some Fluid Mechanics Basics

January 23, 2015

At the moment I’m intently studying fluid mechanics for an exam on planetary science. As you may have guessed, the fluid mechanics in question is for modelling planetary atmospheres, but the mathematics is universally applicable. I’ve wanted to learn fluid mechanics for many years so I thought I’d just go through some of the basics...

Radiative Transfer in Planetary Atmospheres: An Overview

January 1, 2015

A little while ago I got carried away on a little post which discussed a really cool little bit of physics called radiative transfer. As I said then, radiative transfer is a technique that you can use to study how energy, in the form of electromagnetic radiation, moves through material. In that post, which you can...

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....

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 – April 2012

April 13, 2012

This month has been chocker block of tunes I’ve been listening to, owing to having a lot more free time than usual. So, I’m going to limit myself a little. Without further ado, let’s get started. Chris Rea – Julia If you’ve never heard of Chris Rea, he’s a veteran guitarist and song writer through...

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...

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...

A Little Digital Audio Rant

November 17, 2011

Hi All, it’s that time of the year again. Time for a good ol’ rant from yours truly. This time I’m ranting about digital audio. In particular, music downloads and CDs. Personally I just can’t get my head around why someone would rather buy MP3s / AACs off of iTunes or any other miscellaneous MP3...

Random Star Trek Trivia

November 13, 2011

Okay, I think it’s time for a geek out. Here goes. Since I am a massive geek of general sci-fi, and in particular the Star Trek form of sci-fi, time for a little trek related trivia post. The phrase ‘Beam me up Scotty’ was never, ever actually said in the original series, quite ironic seeing...