galaxy fireworks: midpoint

i'm pleased to report that the feeding, feedback, and fireworks conference is progressing at a productive yet relaxed pace.  i was going to write more here, but i decided instead to go snorkling with the turtles and stingrays during our morning off.   you understand ;)

you can read the informative tweets from the first two days: HERE.

i'll highlight just a couple items.  lisa kewly created a particularly useful graphic, which simultaneously summarized the complicated lives of galaxies that we will be discussing at the meeting, and initiated the new astromeme:  #AGNshark!

also, stuart ryder gave us a lesson in how to create acronyms for survey names!

in other news, my body has decided that i should not miss a single sunrise this week, and i'm glad it did!

galaxy fireworks: conference organizing

this week i'm on hamilton island, one of the whitsunday islands amid the great barrier reef off the northeast coast of queensland, australia.

this is the view from my room.

the near-supermoon rising as the sun set on the opposite horizon.

oh right, but i'm actually here for a big international astronomy conference.  that i organised.  i almost forgot....

the conference is called "Feeding, Feedback and Fireworks: Celebrating our Cosmic Landscape" and takes place this monday through friday.   nearly 100 astronomers from around the world are arriving to discuss "galaxy evolution and how various feedback and feeding processes transfer energy into and out of galaxies. We intend to bring together observations, from radio to X-rays, and the best available theoretical models, to create a more complete picture of our cosmic landscape."  (and to enjoy the island, i suspect!).  

i'm incredibly pleased with the diverse array of speakers that will share their research and ideas this week.   we brought forward the topics of gender and geographic diversity when the scientific organizing committee discussed candidates for invited speakers, and i'm pleased to report that of our 18 invited speakers, exactly half are women!   this is incredibly rare among professional astronomy conferences.   as you can see in this plot i swiped from the american astronomical society, the typical percentages of total female speakers is less than 30%.  i marked the overall percentage of female speakers (37%) at this conference with an orange line.

with regards to the recent issue about the fifth dotastronomy conference, where a shocking 7% of the women who registered for the conference actually submitted abstracts to give talks, for the galaxy fireworks conference, nearly everyone who registered to attend, male and female, asked to give a talk (97%).  i think many people justifying an investment in a trip this far want to give a talk in order to get financial support, in addition to contributing to the productivity of the meeting, of course.   also, our registration website probably made it seem that abstract submission was non-negotiable.

organizing a major conference is no small feat and i couldnt have done it without a capable and reliable committee helping out.  i've tried to choose an alluring location to get people interested, and nearly 50% of the attendees are flying in from overseas!   i can give more details on suggestions for those of you organinzing big conferences in the future, but i want to wait until the event actually happens so i know which ideas were a success and which turn out to be failures.

so far, i'm pretty happy on this tropical island :)

not sure how much i'll be able to post this week as i'll be fairly distracted, but you can follow me (@astropixie) or the conference hashtag on twitter: #GalaxyFireworks.

UPDATE: report from halfway through the conference.
UPDATE: a trip to the great barrier reef after the conference.
UPDATE: the perseus cluster of galaxies.
UPDATE: conference photos. 

the true measure of justice

a quote from nobel peace prize winning burmese opposition leader aung san suu kyi:

"the true measure of the justice of a system is the amount of protection it guarantees to the weakest."

parallelogram doormat

yes, please.   i'll take one of these!

the "parallelepipedus" kovrikus doormat was designed vladimir pavelenko for art. lebedev studio.

frequency and vibration visualized

nikola tesla said "if you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration." 

the video below shows the "chladni plate experiment" which beautifully visualizes complex patterns that form as a result of resonant vibration on a solid surface.  this experiment is achieved by connecting a metal plate to a speaker then, sprinkling sand on the plate's surface, change the pitch (frequency measured in Hertz (Hz)) of sound that vibrates the plate, and watch the sand jump into the resonance pattern that results from each different sound wave vibration.  

the patterns are beautiful, and i particularly like the transitions between different frequencies.   5201 Hz is my favorite pattern!

this is what the chladni patterns for a square plate look like:

chladni first performed this experiment by running a violin-type bow along the side of the metal plate to find the resonance, so it shouldnt be as much of a fascinating surprise as i found it to be to see these patterns on a violin's surface!

a similar thing happens to guitars, mandolins, cellos, cymbals, etc. super cool.

hipsters in stone

photographer Léo Caillard creates a hilarious masterpiece by dressing ancient classical statues as hipsters ;)

i think these are the best, but you can view the whole collection here.

the woodcut moon

this is a very nice piece of art, which must have required steady skill and patience to create.  i also like the sense of humor shown in the last image of "the moon".

planetary trio

an astronomy picture of the day that shows an amazing image of the recent planetary conjunction visible in the northern skies.

this compilation image was created by chris kotsiopoulos and shows (from left to right) the close-together planets of jupiter, venus, and mercury.   also shown is the stacked digital image is the star elnath.

better than sinatra

tropfest is a large short film festival.  the finals of australia's version are held in sydney each year at a big park where everyone gathers to watch all the finalists.   there is a signature item that must be included in the video entries each year.  this year's item: balloon.

one video that i particularly liked this year is called better than sinatra and introduces raymond borzelli.  he struggles in his everyday life to pay bills and afford proper food, but he comes alive when he walks around the streets of sydney listening to the music of local buskers.

this video was directed and produced by jefferson grainger.  unfortunately, i cannot embed the video and i hope internationals can watch it at THIS LINK.  enjoy!