Category Archives: Astronomy

Interstellar

Posted on 1 December 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

To begin with, I haven’t seen anyone note the coincidence that recent two films, Interstellar and The Theory of Everything (the Stephen Hawking biopic), both key off a major unsolved problem of physics, the unification of gravity and quantum theory. … Continue reading →

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Unafraid of the Dark: Highlights from the last episode of Cosmos

Posted on 9 June 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Passages from the last episode of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Cosmos”. Early in the episode, he describes a thought experiment: Pick a star, any one of the hundreds of billions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy, which is just one … Continue reading →

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Salon on Cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson, science, and conservative denialism

Posted on 9 June 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Several posts at Salon lately about “Cosmos”, Neil deGrasse Tyson, science, and conservative denialism. 5 Most Important Lessons from “Cosmos” Which are: It’s OK to not know all the answers Climate change is happening, and it’s made-made. Evolution: How did … Continue reading →

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Amateur Astronomy and Cultural Mythology

Posted on 3 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Since my post the other day about the my trigger to amateur astronomy in my youth, a grade-school textbook called A Dipper Full of Stars, I picked up the copy of that book I bought for a few dollars over … Continue reading →

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Cosmos and My Amateur Astronomy

Posted on 1 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I liked last Sunday’s episode of Cosmos for a couple reasons. The second reason is what the bulk of the show explored: the process of scientific data collection and analysis, the way simple classification can give way to insight about … Continue reading →

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