Searching for: what

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...

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...

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...