astronomers and the temple of preah khan

this clever panorama image, featuring yara and myself and yara and me, was created by audrey galamet at the preah khan temple, near angkor, cambodia. click for a larger view!


my pose on the right is an attempt to imitate the lovely apsara dancers who are carved into the walls all over these temples.

38 hours across thailand

miraculously, all forms of public transport i needed to use yesterday conspired to work with me! the day started with a 45 minutes taxi ride from our hostel to the pier of koh chang island. the taxi consisted of two benches in the back of a pick up truck, with our luggage tossed on top of a loose covering. then we took a ferry to mainland thailand where we waited (ahem, sweated) for one hour until the bus arrived. the bus was supposed to take 6 hours, but it arrived in bangkok uncharacteristically ahead of schedule, giving me more time to say au revoir to my fabulous traveling companions!

i took a tuk-tuk to the train station and really enjoyed bargaining with the tuk-tuk driver over the price! i had previously asked a travel agent about how much the tuk-tuk would cost; she said 60 baht. the driving initially offered me 150!? when i countered with 50, he looked shocked, and then smiled, and we settled on 80 (about $2 for a 20 minute ride). haggling can be great or horrible.... not much in between.

i arrived at the train station, bought my 2nd class overnight sleeper compartment ticket to chiang mai, which i had been worried might be sold out! the train confused me at first because i had no idea how the "sleeper" system worked, but i eventually figured it out and the ride was mostly comfortable. it ended up taking nearly 16 hours to get to the chiang mai station!!! then i took another tuk-tuk and waited about 30 minutes for the girl i'm staying with here to come meet me.

whew! i'm exhausted from all the sitting, broken up by moments of backpack-laden excitement!

chiang mai is a cute little city with great alley ways, coffee shops and message parlors everywhere. my first point of business was to sign up for a cooking class ;)

my poster at the malaysia conference

yeah science!

the language of the universe

at the conference in malaysia (was that just over a week ago?!?!), meghan gray distributed business cards promoting her fabulous survey - STAGES. the front of the cards have gorgeous color images of individual galaxies from the abell 901/902 galaxy supercluster, and the backs have information on the project with a link to the university website. i took more than my fair share of cards (thanks meghan ;) and have since given one to each of the people that i have come to know during my travels.


the reaction of one person in particular really made me appreciate that i grabbed the cards. while we were visiting the temples of angkor in cambodia, we hired one young tuk-tuk driver for all three days. he was adorable and enthusiastic, although his poor english and our nonexistent khmer made communication very difficult. nonetheless, we ate lunch together each day and went out in siem reap during our last day in town (i'll share the story of that unappetizing local meal in another post). we told him that we are three girls from three different countries on three different continents, but we are all astronomers and traveling together after our conference. he said "strong ladies!" we smiled and blushed. he wrote down the khmer alphabet in my notebook and taught us several words, as he practiced his english and tried to understand our chit chat.

during our first lunch together, i gave him one of the STAGES cards to help explain what an "astronomer" is. the card had the image of a gorgeous spiral galaxy dancing on the front and i wrote my name on the back. he seemed fascinated as he smiled and laughed and happily stashed the card into his long-sleeved shirt pocket. it was impossible to explain the details of the image and reality that we live in a similar galaxy called the milky way, but we didnt really need to say anything... he was thrilled. every time we returned to the tuk-tuk that afternoon, after exploring another ancient temple around angkor, we found him lounging in the tuk-tuk, with his feet up, admiring the image of the distant galaxy. wonderful!

no matter what part of this earth we happened to be born in, or what language we were taught to speak by our parents, we all see the moon rise and fall each day and we all share the wonder of bright stars in the night sky.

unfortunately, i'm out of those beautiful business cards, so now i'm left to using hand gestures and drawings to explain the universe to people i meet that dont speak english (or spanish).

excitement in bangkok

for those of you following along at home, there is trouble in bangkok - my previously scheduled destination of tomorrow!! not to worry, we've decided to head south instead, to an island near the cambodian border. hopefully things will settle down in bangkok (while i'm relaxing on the beach), as i'll most likely have to pass thru there to get to chiang mai in the north. i'm happy to be avoiding the big city, actually. i've been having loads fun the last few days exploring small towns and their way of life.

birthday word puzzle

i have a little word puzzle for you.

twenty years ago, ken was four times older than amanda. today is ken's birthday and now amanda is half* his age. how old is ken turning today?

the problem tells us:

the solution:

happy birthday pops!!!

* well, i'm very nearly half anyway... no need to work out the details :)




the second photo was taken by brad kuntz.

the idea for this post was blatantly stolen from the clever daniel jaramillo at chichipanguanorrea.

sneak peak of southeast asia

here's a teaser of photos from my adventures so far... some from malaysia and some from cambodia. enjoy!

the petronas towers of kuala lumpur.


i have endless pictures of food.


my new favorite shoes. luckily, she removed them when she entered the temple so i didnt have to keep suspiciously following her to get a photo!


monkey beach.... where the monkeys out smarted us and stole our juice.


view of penang from the largest buddist temple in malaysia.


with my traveling companions, eating with our fingers :)


cambodia...


i love the written script, even though its hard to look beyond the amazing motorcyclists!




i have no idea what the black things are...

too tall park bench

from gothamist.

cambodia - first impressions

excitement!!
non-stop, chaotic movement,
dominated by motocyclists with up to four riders!
few helmets.
many mouth/nose covers.

intersections harbor motorists
moving along vectors of >every< direction.
glad i'm not navigating the tuk-tuk!

concentrated faces during the day
in order to keep up with the pace.
smiling faces at night
when the winds blow and the temperature cools.

many market fish still jumping.
unidentifiable animal parts sitting on the table
next to the petite, squatting woman chopping them up.

ladies blush when asked for a photo.
young children yell >hello!!< as we walk past.

we ate a veggie-full soup last night,
based on the khmer diet.
unknown animal parts boiled to make a broth.
loads of various greens added
along with basil and many other herbs.
two kinds of noodles finished the base,
then we scooped it into our bowls
to make room for more greens in the pot!
option to add a bit of a flavorful brown gravy for texture,
and spicy red chili paste -
if you think your stomach can handle it!
apparently mine couldnt.

hopefully i'll remember that lesson today.

signs

here's a nice, 12-minute short film by Patrick Hughes called signs.


Schweppes Short Film Festival-SIGNS from zeldamix (requiem for a dream) on Vimeo.

shake the world

here's a nice worldwide video project called shake the world.

i like projects such as this where people from all over the world can participate, and in the end we are entertained, and learn something about the realities of other people's lives!


Shake The World from Shake The World on Vimeo.

i've arrived in malaysia!

the moon smiles while orion leans on his side. the street-flooding downpours dont dissuade the motorcyclists from riding around town.

i have arrived in kuala lumpur, malaysia!

the city of KL is surprisingly modern. there is little evidence for structures older than 20 years or so. the petronas towers create a gorgeous skyline with the KL tower, but it doesnt feel "exotic" until i go to the chaotic markets and eat the fabulous food!

the conference is proceeding smoothly! astronomers give their talks to the group, trying to convince others of their results, which dont always agree with previous talks. controversial subjects are the most interesting, when people discuss potential resolutions and advise each other on how to progress with ideas!

a simple challenge in this science is to create definitions, then convince the community to continuously use those definitions! one result may contradict another just because they define "close" galaxies differently, for example! this is true for any subject i guess, but no less frustrating among the experts.

in all honesty, there hasnt been a major breakthrough in the field of galaxy formation and evolution in probably 25 years - and i'm not seeing any evidence for an exciting *new* result here. the discussions revolve around tweaking the details of relations discovered in the 70's or 80's. i was hoping for a bit more insight, but maybe it's just me that hasnt found it....?

time for lunch.... i'll try to make time for more reflections over the next couple days...

yuri's night - april 4-12, 2009

yuri's night: dream. explore. celebrate.

lifecycle of a seed

a simple plot of the life of a seed, told with lovely animation...


The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

southeast asia or bust

i dont actually understand that phrase... [somewhere] or bust! but i coudnt think of anything better to say. anyway, i'm off on a voyage to southeast asia! my trip starts off by presenting recent research at a conference in malaysia. it's always exciting to hear what other extragalactic astronomers are doing, to receive feedback on my own work, and participate in the dialog about the future directions of the field.

my adventures continue with journeys to thailand and cambodia!


needless to say, i'm incredibly excited! i've been preparing to enter food heaven by doing yoga and eating the spiciest food i can find... in england... which isnt very spicy! my blogging rate will, of course, slow while i am away. i've scheduled a couple posts to appear while i'm traveling, and i'm sure i will find time to make a couple updates here and there, but i'm looking forward to a break from my regularly computer-dominated universe.

many pictures to come... ciao!

100 hours of astronomy

from april 2nd to the 5th, people all over the world will be celebrating 100 hours of astronomy. the goal is to get as many people to look thru a telescope as possible! the dates correspond with the first quarter moon, which is my favorite object to view thru small telescopes, and saturn is up right now as well! many local astronomy societies will be holding events, most universities have some sort of telescope they use for public observing, or visit the official site to see what is being planned around your town!


there will be several events you can follow online if the weather doesnt cooperate with your evening sky gazing: around the world in 80 telescopes allows you to see tours by professional astronomers of some of the world's most advanced observatories!

click here to view all the other online activities planned for both adults and children during the 100 hours of astronomy!

enjoy!

the extended history of astropixie

i've been asked a lot lately how i got interested in astronomy, what motivated me to study physics, and what brought about astropixie. so i thought i'd share the stories...

my official science career began when i was eighteen and decided to change my undergraduate major to physics, only to discover i was the sole female among the physics majors! i guess i didn't expect there to be many girls in the field, but that never influenced my decision. i suspect the lack of female students gives more insight into our societal influences and expectations than to my aspirations to figure out how the universe worked.

my unofficial science career began when i was young, although i didnt recognize it as such.

i always enjoyed little logic puzzles. i didnt understand the significance of it at the time, but my curiosities were completely aroused by finding patterns and figuring out how things worked! electronics never really interested me - our VCR always blinked "12:00" - but i loved solving puzzles. i played the piano from a young age and memorized the music by recognizing the patterns in the notes and chords and feeling the mood. as a present one year, i received a set of small metal puzzles. you had to separate two twisted pieces of metal that seemed permanently attached together and impossible to pull apart without using brutal force!


i got really frustrated by such puzzles at first when i couldnt solve them... sometimes to the point of tears. but then i figured one out! DING! there were always little tricks involved in the solutions and once i found them, the "impossible" puzzle seemed simple and obvious to solve. once i learned one trick, i could attempt to apply it to other puzzles. sometimes old tricks worked, sometimes i was challenged to find new solutions. this is exactly the process with which new science problems are solved... you apply all the tricks you've acquired, and if you run out of tricks, you learn new tricks (or give up on the problem if you dwell in the doldrums too long).

as for school, i was a pretty good student. i had an older sister who did very well in school, so i felt that i could get good grades, it was just a matter of studying and thinking about things until i understood them.

i didnt really "like" math, but i got decent grades. my last teacher in elementary school decided i was an ok student, but not capable enough to be placed in the advanced math and english classes upon entering junior high (~12 years old). my mother was furious when she found out about this and fought with the school for several weeks to convince them to move me to the advanced classes. i felt indifferent. i thought i would do fine in the advanced classes, but they would require more work which wasnt something i wanted to fight for!

while she fought to upgrade my status, i started the school year in the regular math class. to my immediate fascination, i entered the class of the most influencial teacher i ever had!! he was a young guy who didnt teach a regular math class. we spent a lot of time during the class solving riddles and puzzles. he introduced our innocent minds to zeno's paradox by asking whether a thirsty grasshopper would ever reach water if he could only jump half the distance to the water, then jump half of the remaining distance, then jump half the remaining distance, etc...? the class seemed confused; i was enamored... with the word problems, and with my teacher ;) he continued to do these interactive puzzles during class, and i found that i was thinking about solving problems in new and interesting ways. i also found that i was pretty good at solving his puzzles, and i've always enjoyed "winning" at anything and everything!

my mom eventually won her battle, and i was moved to the "advanced" math class, where i learned all the proper ways to solve basic algebraic equations for x. i was bored, and felt completely uninspired by math. until a few years later, when a great teacher and his geometry class inspired me again! our class bonded so much while solving the proofs that most of us, even some "cool kids," applied to join the math club at our teacher's insistence! so there you have it, i was in the high school math club for three years. and i really enjoyed it. i traveled around the US taking math tests and solving logic puzzles because i liked the challenges and i liked the traveling, even though i never felt i was very "good" in math.

my interests were quite varied throughout my teenage years; i always had after school jobs, i ran cross country, i was in the french club, i played futbol until i had to have knee surgery, i sang in a city-wide youth chorus, etc... i always harbored a fascination with the stars, and made up my own constellations in the skies, but didnt think astronomy was a feasible career. i mean, i'd never met an astronomer, or even a professional scientist for that matter! when i entered college, i wanted to travel, and i was a bit tired of all the hard work, so i majored in french. i quickly became bored without the challenge of problem solving, and my fascination with the stars never diminished, so i switched my field of study to physics, hoping i could focus in astronomy (there was no astronomy program at my university, and in hindsight, i'm very glad i got a degree in physics!).

attaining a degree in physics was hard work, i won't deny that, but i happily managed to do all the social, political, personal, and philosophical exploring that suits a young person when she leaves home for the first time. when i was nearing graduation, i felt proud of my accomplishments, but unsure of what i wanted to do with myself. the newly-appointed female professor in the department insisted i apply for graduate school. i wasnt sure why no one else had made such a suggestion and felt grateful for her interest in my career and well-being! my curiosity of astronomy had certainly not been satisfied while studying just physics, and i couldnt think of anything more interesting to do with myself, so i entered graduate school in austin, texas the next fall, without taking more than the summer off!

many years into studying for my astronomy doctorate, i wondered if i really wanted to continue along the typical academic path post-phd, and realized that i harbored a strong interest in communicating science to a popular audience, as well as to top-level researchers. around that time, i started to travel internationally to work with collaborators all over the world. i had no idea at the beginning that doing astronomy would provide so many diverse opportunities to travel all over the world!! in order to keep my family and friends updated on my travels, and to practice science writing, i began the astropixie blog in 2006. i did not know many other online science personalities at the time, especially female students, so i felt excited to develop my ideas and writing techniques within the relative safety of online anonymity. i felt amazed at how the readers absorbed explanations for real-world physical phenomena and noticed no gender bias among the readers who consistently commented and provided feedback.

i took a non-scientific poll a couple weeks ago and the results show that in fact, more women visited the blog (and voted) during the 6-day voting period! i was (pleasantly) surprised at how even these numbers were, because i had no real idea who was reading this blog!


the issue we face is that while women make up ~50% of the population of humans, in the working environments of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), women make up only 8.0% of all professors in science, engineering, and technologies. there are many complicated reasons for this, and no single solution exists. i dont think the point is to seek an even 50-50 split in gender, or an even distribution of people of all types in the workplace, but i think we have a responsibility to stop biasing ourselves and our children about what they "should" or can do in their lives. our society influences children from a young age - first thru consumerism (vehicles, battle toys, and blue for boys; cooking sets, dolls, and pink for girls), and then thru education by encouraging girls towards social sciences and boys towards sciences and math. of course not everyone follows these behaviors, but we can all try to actively *include* everyone in all of life's activities, instead of participating (consciously or not) to *exclude* certain types of people from doing certain activities.

i'm happy to know that i'm reaching a broad audience with this blog, because the fact that there are so few women in the upper echelons of STEM working environments, means that there are few role models to observe! what i do isnt what everyone wants to do, but if one person is inspired or intrigued to do whatever their little heart desires in this world, regardless of what types of people have done that thing in the past, then i'm satisfied.

as for the name astropixie... it found its origins long ago on the appalachian trail. its a dream of many people to spend the ~6 months it takes to hike the entire trail - from georgia to maine. i traveled to north carolina one year with friends to meet up with some guys who were attempting the whole trail! we hiked with them for a week. while hiking the trail, its customary to go by a trail name, and the fellas donned me with the trail name "pixie." i thought it was cute! several years later, when i arrived in austin and started signing up for various online forums and whatnot, i decided to spice up the obvious nickname of pixie by adding the astro, in honor of my new field of study!

and there you have it. the extended history of astropixie!

solid rocket booster camera

the shuttle discovery launched 15 march 2009. here is a video taken from the camera mounted on the solid rocket booster! the beginning shows the separation from the shuttle and the subsequent fall to earth - freaky sounds and great views! the second part shows the view from launch until shuttle separation. cool stuff - very raw!



from universe today.

cantina song on harp

i've always wanted to play the harp, but it was an impractical instrument to get a hold of... maybe one day. meanwhile, this sports-jersey-wearing young fellow can play a mean harp! and he plays the cantina song from star wars to boot!



from cynical-c.

inferior conjunction for venus

venus is now approaching the the sun in our sky. venus is currently on the same side of the sun as the earth, so it is close to the earth right now. the point when venus is exactly between the earth and the sun is called inferior conjunction, and occurs on 29 march, 2009.


after venus passes thru inferior conjunction, it will move to being the earth's "morning star" although for the next few days, you can spot venus in the early evening and in the early morning!

because of the relative positions of venus, the earth, and the sun, it goes thru phases, similar to the phases of the moon. the new moon occurs when the moon is directly between the earth and the sun, so you can understand why venus actually looks like a little sliver right now, even though it seems so bright in our sky! we will see a "new" venus at inferior conjunction.

here are photos as venus has approached inferior conjunction over the last several days!

carnival of space - 95

for your weekly dose of space reading, head over to orbital hub and check out the 95th carnival of space!


somehow, this x-ray, chandra space telescope image of the interacting galaxy system called NGC 6340 looks upside down. really, its silly to think that anything in space looks upside down, because it's all relative, but still, it looks awkward to me... am i the only one?

carl sagan - cosmos series

those of you living in the USA can now view the entire COSMOS series online at hulu. COSMOS was a fantastic astronomy tv series produced by carl sagan and ann druyan in the 1980s. the animations look a little primative compared to today's standards, but the science is still largely applicable and the imagination demonstrated is exquisite!

here's the introduction to the series:



i hope i can view hulu videos from outside the US soon!!!! good thing i have the whole COSMOS series on DVD ;)

hat tip to the bad astronomer.

algebraic surfaces

nice visualizations of algebraic surfaces found at freigeist.


the explanations for methodology are in german, so i dont understand them. i think "freigeist" means "free spirit" though, which is a little ironic since all these surfaces, while beautiful and seemingly free-flowing, are strictly defined by algebraic equations. gorgeous stuff to look at.. very nice use of shading and shadow!

random scenes from england

some are from london, some are from robin's 'hood.







a round street.


a bar called cosine on a round street.






i have to say it every time... "the best shop in the world dot co dot uk."