Internet Stars: The Secret Life of Sixty Symbols

for anyone who happens to be near nottingham, UK thursday evening, the creator of sixty symbols and other interesting video projects at the university of nottingham, brady haran, will be giving a public lecture. i've been advised (warned?) that i should be "worried" about the potentially embarrassing out-takes he will be showing. oh dear. so if you go, please do let me know how silly i come across! thank you.


Internet Stars: The Secret Life of Sixty Symbols

Brady Haran

Thursday 27th January 2011

ABSTRACT: A small band of scientists from Nottingham have become minor celebrities on YouTube. But how did it happen? And were there problems along the way? Film-maker Brady Haran is the man behind Sixty Symbols (physics and astronomy) and the Periodic Table of Videos (chemistry). In this lecture he will take you behind the scenes on both projects. He'll discuss how the films are made and share some embarrassing 'out- takes' that prove scientists are only human!

6-7 pm
Maths & Physics Building (B1)
University of Nottingham
University Park Campus
Nottingham

total solar eclipse 2009 - photos!

here are a few still shots from the total solar eclipse last week!

while riding in the taxi to ningbo, brady and i feared we were seeing our only glimpse of the sun for the rest of the week :(


the morning of the eclipse! the crazy-looking building is china's first zero-emissions building, which houses the center for sustainable energy technologies at the university of nottingham.


ready to go!


people slowly gathered around us and looked thru the glasses. our first visitor was from the campus's security department. the guy looked very serious and not at all happy to see us with video cameras! but as soon as we handed him the eclipse glasses and had him look at the sun, he got a huge grin on his face and went off to gather some friends to bring back!


all credit for the success of the video goes to this guy - brady haran! i was just happy (and giggly) to be along for the ride :)


getting closer...


almost there...


self portrait during totality!


i didnt get any good still shots of the sun itself amid my excitement, but you can watch our video of the whole event if you want! cosmos4u also has a nice summary of eclipse coverage to browse.

here's my quote from the university of nottingham press release:

Dr Amanda Bauer, from the School of Physics and Astronomy, who also travelled to China to see the eclipse said: “A total solar eclipse is the most spectacular astronomical event you can see with the naked eye. After travelling all the way from Nottingham to Ningbo, it looked like we might be thwarted by the weather. But the clouds cleared in time, and I was stunned by how spectacular it was. I'd seen pictures and video before, but I was not prepared for how big it looked and how dark and cool it became. For four minutes it felt like we were on a different planet.”

scales of the universe

if you are in nottingham wednesday evening, come hear the first installment of our international year of astronomy public lecture series! the official poster pictured below has the full schedule for the rest of the year. i'll be speaking in august.


WHEN: Wednesday, May 20th, 6-7 pm

WHO: Dr. Sebastien Foucaud (University of Nottingham, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy)

TITLE: "Scales of the Universe"

WHERE: Maths & Physics building on the University Park Campus, Lecture Theatre B1

ABSTRACT: I invite you on a journey through space, speeding through the Universe at the "power of ten". From a standard meter on the scale to the edge of the Universe, traveling through distance that encompasses our sun and furthermost galaxies, I would like to show you how minuscule we are in terms of our size, but also how broad our knowledge is in terms of its expanse. I will take this opportunity to explain how through time, since the ancient Greeks to the era of space conquests, astronomers have been measuring distances. To conclude, I will also explain how we think the Universe was formed 13 billion years ago as we travel through time from its earliest stages to present times.

carl sagan and the interstellar adventures of the voyager mission

i contributed today's podcast to the excellent 365 days of astronomy project! go have a listen to carl sagan and the interstellar adventures of the voyager missions, or read the trascript below! (i like that they published the trasnscipt in the same lowercase form that i submitted it!)


TRANSCRIPT:

hello everyone! i'm amanda bauer, a postdoctoral research fellow in astronomy at the university of Nottingham in england. today is december 20th, 2009, the 13th anniversary of astronomer carl sagan's death.

my first memory of carl sagan is from my first year as an undergraduate at the university of cincinnati. i was majoring in french and taking the university's only undergraduate astronomy course as my one science requirement. my professor played a few episodes of the COSMOS mini-series in class. eventhough this tv series was written in the late 1970s by carl sagan, ann druyan, and steven soter, the episodes made a memorable impression on me! i wondered why i had never seen anything explaining the universe so simply and understandably before. remember, this was back before youtube allowed us immediate access to all the good, and the bad, video information humans had to offer each other.

i'd like to mention an online video project i've been involved with at the university of nottingham, called sixty symbols. filmmaker brady haran, has worked in collaboration with scientists here to create 5-10 minute youtube videos about the various funny little letters and squiggles used by physicists and astronomers to explain concepts about the physical universe. you can find videos at http://www.sixtysymbols.com/.

so a couple months after first being exposed to the COSMOS tv series, the movie contact was released, proving to be a huge inspiration in my thoughts about the future. in fact, just a few weeks later, i decided to change my course and switch my college major to physics, dedicated to the idea of studying astronomy as much as i could! i only found out many years later that the movie contact was actually based on a novel by carl sagan!

My student days are long gone now, but I regularly hear colleagues claim that he was a huge influence in their decision to study astrophysics.

In addition to communicating astronomy and critical thinking to the public, i admire carl sagan because he actively applied science to public welfare, he was a skeptic who fought against pseudo science, he wrote about the virtues of cannabis under the pseuonymn "Mr. X," he won a pulitzer prize for his book "The Dragons of Eden," and he contributed hugely to the scientific discoveries about our solar system made by space probes sent out in the 1970s and 80s.

One project in particular seems to have left a lasting impression on human beings: the twin voyager missions. in 1977, NASA launched the voyager 1 and voyager 2 spacecraft, which were intended for 4 year missions to explore the outer regions of our solar system! Both voyagers have completely exceeded all expectations for their missions and continue to explore the the farthest reaches of our solar system!

traveling aboard each voyager spacecraft is an ambitious time capsule, intended to communicate the story of humity to any being that might find them! referred to as a 'golden record,' each time capsule is a phonographic 12-inch gold-plated copper disk. carl sagan chaired the committee that determined what message should be sent out into space on the voyager spacecrafts to portray the uniqueness of life on earth. imagine how exciting it must have felt to lead the group of people who designed, created, and found what images, symbols, and sounds to use to explain to a potential distant unknown creature... who we are, where we are, and *what* we are!

in the end, the team included 115 images, nature sounds of earth, 90 minutes of music, and spoken greetings from 55 different languages, among other things.

voyager 1 remains the most distant human made object we have sent to space, having passed the distance of pioneer 10 on february 17, 1998. As of November 20th, 2009, voyager 1 is over 111 times the farther from the sun than the earth! that's 111 astronomical units. thats more than 16,000 million kilometers and about 4 times as far from the sun as pluto's orbit!

these little chunks of synthetic machinery have been traveling away from earth for 32 years, and continue to travel outward, well beyond the confines of our solar system, making them the first spacecraft in interstellar space! the nearest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years away. at its current speed (about 38,000 miles per hour!), it will take 56,000 years for voyager 1 to reach the next star!!

it will have lost power, and all interactive capabilities, long before that time. NASA scientists estimate that in 2025, the spacecraft will lose electrical power, because the Radio-isotope Thermo-electric Generators will run out of their plutonium fuel sources, due to natural radioactive decay. The voyagers will lose power well before they reach another star system.

but the good news is that the 'golden record' has a shelf life of 1 billion years!

it's actually impossible to predict the exact trajectory of the voyager spacecraft as they will get gravitationally bumped along their journeys. but they could pass nearby several thousands of stars during the next billion years, while the golden records will still be playable. and they will possibly pass out into intergalactic space! voyager 1 is traveling 35 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the north. Voyager 2 is traveling 48 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the south and will pass 4.3 light years (25 trillion miles) from Sirius, the brightest star in earth's night sky.

it's amazing how far these spacecraft will travel away from earth. and it reminds me just how incredible it is that the light from the distant galaxies that i study everyday, has traveled for over 10 billions years, across spacetime, without running into any obstacles, only to crash into the primary mirror of a telescope we happen to have sitting on the surface of earth. amazing!

relatively early on in the voyager missions, the voyager 1 spacecraft turned around to take an image of the earth on february 14, 1990. in that photo, earth appeared as a tiny dot, encompassing one single pixel of that entire image. carl sagan was inspired to call our home planet the "pale blue dot" based on that image, and i'd like to leave you with some of his words. thank you for listening:

"Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

laser cooling

did you know you could cool a gas with lasers? this sixty symbols video explains the process...

(i didnt know there was such an intricate laser system here at the university of nottingham!)

(also, the last line of this video is great ;)

things you know you dont know

yes, i'm still here, alive and enjoying nottingham... er, nott'm. i havent had my laptop online yet, so i'm waiting to write lots until i can also share pictures. there arent a buhzillion internet cafe around these parts, so it might have to wait until i go to work. mostly i've just been organizing, exploring, and relaxing before i officially start work on monday. i will say that the crosswords here are a bit different, and decidedly more difficult due to their subtlety. i'll keep trying though.

in the meantime, here's another gem from indexed:

homemade thanksgiving

today is my third day in a row cooking for one single meal. my roommate is laughing at me and i admit i'm pretty amazed at my own dedication to this thanksgiving - for no apparent reason. there are certain food items that i havent been able to find ready-made here in nottingham, so i've decided to cook them from scratch. sometimes when i think i can't have something, i start to crave it. plus, i just moved into a new partly-furnished apartment and have had to discover what cooking items did not come with the place, so i've had to do some domestic shopping to prepare!

the menu:

- veggies and yogurt-dill dip (to warm up our palettes)
- roast chicken (the turkeys just didnt look that good and i actually like chicken better)
- my own holiday cous-cous stuffing (the one recipe my mom has stolen from me ;)
- mashed potatoes and gravy (dedicated to cori-sa!)
- green bean casserole (with homemade french fried onions!)
- cranberry sauce (my first time!)
- three-seed rolls (hooray for yummy yeast bread!)
- not pumpkin pie (couldnt find pumpkins, so i made a butternut squash pie!)
- with whipped cream!

the effort i've put into the meal represents two things, i think.
1) i've invited a few people to my thanksgiving dinner who i'd like to thank for welcoming me so well to this new country (limited by table space and oven size, sorry i couldnt invite everyone i'd like...).
2) i'm really missing *all* of my family right now... and our gargantuan rent-out-a-hall, assembly line, 4-turkey, dessert-table, beer-from-a-keg, wine-from-a-box, kids-running-mad, games-after-dinner, slip-around-on-the-ice-outside thanksgiving celebration!

one side of my family gathers every year in a huge hall below the church that my grandfather attended as a child. all my aunts and uncles and cousins gather (i have about 20 cousins on that side), plus my grandpa's siblings, their kids (my moms cousins), their kids (my second cousins once removed?), and then the next generation of children (my niece and nephew, for example). its easily 100 people (maybe more?). phew!

the oldest generations (my mom's aunts) organize the feast. they are, of course, in charge of the turkeys (more than two, less than five). they call around to the individual members of the family reporting what they should bring: appetizers, candied yams, green bean casserole, glazed carrots, cheesey broccoli casserole, the strange jello fruit thing, apple pie, pumpkin pie, etc... before lining up to fill our plates, we stand together holding hands while my grandpa reflects on the special day with his full family. i adore my his passionate prayer before the meal. even with so many family members, whose names i struggle to remember, but whose features are connected to my own... my grandpa's words bring us all together in appreciation of our fondness for each other and our time spent together.

so as i'm cooking all this food, i'm thinking about my family back home, and missing their laughter. i'm especially thankful to them for being so supportive of me during all the uncommon endeavors i've attempted in life - including my decision to move so far away from them to pursue my own selfish exploration of the universe. thank you!

the world cup from england

as you've been able to tell, i've been anticipating the world cup for a long while, and have been especially excited to experience all the matches in a country whose population, in general, takes the tournament much more seriously than people from my home nation, the US.


when i moved to england i joined an informal five-a-side match organized by fellow astronomers and their friends. i felt silly telling people i played "soccer" but when i told british friends i played "football" once a week, some people looked confused and actually asked if i wore shoulder pads!?

here are a few other phrases i've picked up over the last two years that have been especially useful for avoiding getting laughed at by the brits during the world cup (which happens anyway, i should add):

it's called a "draw" here, not a "tie."

the score is "nil-nil" not "zero-zero."

it's a "match," not a "game."

they usually call a "coach" and "manager."

your uniform, shin guards, shoes and all are called your "kit." in fact "shoes" are really "boots" and "shin guards" are called something else that i cant remember right now because i'm the only one who ever wears them when we play!

the sport is played on a "pitch," not a "field."

the "skipper" is the captain.

when time is up and there is a draw, the teams have to play "extra time" not "over time."

if you have the lower score at the end of the match you have been "defeated." you didnt "lose."

the sweet yummy things cutely decorated below are called "fairy cakes," not "cup cakes."


the media build up to the world cup here was intense. they constantly gave us messages of impending glory for the english boys. they told us that the national team had a solid chance to bring home the world cup trophy. now, i'm all for team spirit and a country supporting their players, but i was a bit surprised to hear such lofty build up, when my own predictions didnt have england going past the quarter finals (not that i'm any authority, mind). yes, the england squad was made up of quality players, but wasnt this a bit too much pressure to put on them before they even stepped onto the south african pitch?

but from what i have witnessed over the last several weeks, i think it was fitting for the english to build up their team with such ridiculously high expectations because it allowed them to enjoy their national past time: moaning.

i dont say this to be mean, i genuinely think people (must) enjoy it. it all started with moaning about how badly the national team played when they "couldnt even beat the US." i heard echoes of the ever-popular refrain: "typical." now i admit that the US got away with a trick by pulling out a point from the match, but neither team looked impressive enough to come away with 3 points (in my opinion).

i watched england's second match at a pub and was completely shocked by the abusive phrases the (admittedly drunken) lads yelled at the TV as it became less and less likely that england would score a winning goal against algeria. and then the fans that made the trip all the way to south africa to support their national team stood up and booed the players off the field. really? give them no credit what-so-ever for actually getting a point from the match - they didnt lose!!? nope. abusive insults and boo-ing.

after the USA's final match, a friend commented that he was very surprised by my calmness after our loss. well, we didnt play well or score goals. you cant win a match if you dont score goals. but i guess no matter what reaction i had it would have seem subdued compared to the disgust shown by typical english football fan after a loss. thats not entirely true though, because after their loss to germany, the city of nottingham was amazingly quiet.

any way you look at it, the premier league players make such stupid amounts of money each year to play the sport that maybe they should be able to handle a little pressure from their country folk.

regardless, i'm excited to see the rest of the world cup matches after a brief couple days of football withdrawal! the south american teams are looking strong, but i'm still hoping that the trophy will be won by a national that has never won before.

and dont forget, thre is a total solar eclipse on the same day as the world cup final, july 11, which will happen shortly before kickoff! you'll be able to watch the eclipse live on line this year! stay tuned....

mushy peas and mint sauce

i went to the 714th annual nottingham goose fair last weekend! thats probably the oldest festival i've ever attended! it was a huge carnival with rides, rain, fried foods and games like hook-a-duck. amazingly, i only took one picture, but it seems to summarize my experience:


the website describes mushy peas and mint sauce as a "local delicacy," so of course i had to try it. my serving didnt come slopped on top of chips (fries, to the north americans), rather i spooned it out of a tiny cup. it wasnt as awful as i thought it sounded considering that i really dont like peas - but i did not go back for a second serving!

snow joke in nottingham

i love the building in the center.


still with the heeled boots, and thinking umbrellas protect from the snow ;)














the invisible man's house...


a snow flap...


the sled riding hill - with a cleared path in the middle in order to safely walk back up the hill!






cyclists are hardcore!








my little snowman in front of ye olde trip to jerusalem - 1189 AD.


when i walked passed a couple hours later, someone had added and very happy little snowman friend!

european odyssey

today i begin a very large stretch of travel. first i fly to the UK, stop in my old haunt of nottingham to hopefully finish a couple projects with astronomers i continue to collaborate with there. then i'm off to oxford for the third installment of the exciting dotAstronomy conference series. you can read some of my previous posts about it if you dont remember the fun!

then its a whirlwind tour of universities and institutions to present talks about my recent research results, including: the university of cardiff, the max planck institutes in heidelberg and munich, and then the royal observatory in edinburgh (where maybe i'll get to see some cool first edition books by the likes of copernicus, galileo, and newton), and finally, a bit of holiday.

i think this will be an intense trip filled with lots of fun and lots of science. it will be good to see old friends, visit new places, share my research, and get both positive and negative (i'm sure) feedback about what i've been up to.

i havent had much time to actually get excited about this trip because i've been working really hard to get several projects to a point of relative completeness.... but i'm finally feeling relief and really looking forward be sitting on the plane, except for the fact that i woke up this morning feeling a little ill. boo.

anyway, get ready europe, here i come!

venus and the moon over my 'hood

finally caught a few glimpses of the crescent moon and venus shining over my neighborhood of nottingham at the end of last month. lovely!





venus is to the lower right of the moon, although its a bit tough to spot in the small versions of the photos! oh well.

friends: small and grand

of all the new friendships i've made in nottingham over the last 5 months, i dont have any new tiny friends!? i suspect that several couples i know are on the brink of committing to parenthood, but still, almost none of my new friends have small children! not having any little kids around feels strange since i've always been surrounded by kid cousins or kids of friends. babies are adorable (more so when you dont have to change their diapers!), toddlers are cute while learning to communicate and interact (and when they get wound up, wild, and whiny, i can go home!), and then kids really start to get fun when they use their blossoming imaginations to create games and explain to you how the world works according to their growing understanding!

i like spending time with people of a wide range of ages; they remind me to maintain my innocent curiosity while seeking happiness and wisdom.










hm. how does one meet cool kids to interact with in a new city? volunteer?