Stars Like Flies

By: | October 27, 2010
Globular Cluster M80

Scattered around the periphery of our galaxy, the Milky Way, are upwards of 150 odd creatures called globular clusters.  They’re little agglomerations of stars that are bound by gravity into a sphere and that inside it, are buzzing around like flies.  They’re odd because 1) most stars come in singles or pairs, and globulars have hundreds, maybe thousands, maybe millions of stars – and that quantification alone tells you how much astronomers know about them; and 2) most stars are relatively young; and globulars are so old they set a lower limit on the age of the universe, which after all, can’t be younger than its own stars.  What are they doing out there?  A famous astronomer told me, “We know zip, I think.”  Continue reading →

Blue Light Special

By: | October 26, 2010

It’s the end of October—a dark time, and not only because of Halloween ghouls. Today in New York City, we won’t see the sun until 7:19am, and we’ll have to say good-bye at 6:00pm. Each passing day will be distressingly shorter than the day before, until December 21, when the sun will set at 4:31pm, the pattern will reverse, and each passing day will give us a bit more time under the sun.

For the millions of people with seasonal affective disorder, a.k.a. SAD, spring couldn’t come soon enough. The depletion of light triggers bouts of depression—characterized by lethargy, lack of interest in regular activities, hopelessness and even suicidal thoughts—as well as oversleeping, carb-craving and weight gain.
Continue reading →

Ask Mr. Cosmology

By: | October 25, 2010

Q:  What happened before the Big Bang?

Mr. Cosmology:  If I told you, God would have to kill you.

Q: What is time?

Mr. Cosmology:  Is 9:30.

Q:  I just bought a telescope.  Do you have any advice for a first-time sky watcher?

Mr. Cosmology:  What happens in Vega, stays in Vega.

Q:  How many stars are there in the universe?

Mr. Cosmology:  Count all the grains of sand on Earth.  When you’re done, I’ll tell you.

Continue reading →

Is Organized Crime Cashing In at Pompeii?

By: | October 22, 2010

The Italian press recently had a field day in its coverage of the sad decline of one of Italy’s greatest tourist draws: Pompeii. In early October, a prominent Italian newspaper ran a front-page editorial on the subject, calling the crumbling Roman ruins a “symbol of all the sloppiness and inefficiencies of a country that has lost its good sense.” Soon after, Italian politicians leaped into the fray, taking aim at the deep cuts that Silvio Berlusconi’s government has made in cultural funding since 2007.

Such cutbacks are certainly not helping Pompeii. Its grand villas and delicate frescoes require almost constant maintenance and restoration–a very expensive proposition. And there are a lot of them to maintain. But I keep thinking about a conversation I had with a prominent archaeologist over lunch at Pompeii a few years ago, when he brought up the problem of awarding contracts for such work in a region long controlled by the Camorra, a powerful, secretive criminal organization based in nearby Naples.

Continue reading →

Lies about Astronomy

By: | October 21, 2010

The coordinate grid was laid against the sky to fix the stars and for centuries it seemed to work as planned.

Recently, slowly, almost asymptotically, the grid begins to move with respect to itself — abrading, degrading — and therefore deteriorates.

In fact, Declination -14 now sags along its whole length so that Declination +14 is taut and hums like a violin string in a high wind.  Right Ascension 23 has rusted through and swings from its jointure, knocking the vernal equinox out of line.

This year spring came not late exactly, but more toward the center. Continue reading →

Chronic Fatigue Controversy Continues

By: | October 20, 2010

Allison F. can pinpoint the exact day she fell ill. She was at work talking to her boss. “I suddenly felt like a truck hit me. I was weak, dizzy, achy, nauseous and feverish. It felt similar to the onset to the flu, but exceedingly more intense,” she writes. She went home, thinking she had a virus, but she never recovered. Eventually, she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.

 

Today, she lives with her mother and rarely leaves the house. She struggles with pain, migraines, exhaustion, and neurological problems. “There have been nights when I’ve had serious doubt about whether or not I would make it through until morning (and times when I didn’t care if I did),” she writes. Continue reading →

Napoleon’s legacy: ashes, tombs and DNA

By: | October 19, 2010
October 15, 1840: Napoleon's coffin was lifted on board La Belle Poule.

In perhaps the same way that Americans prattle on about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the French never tire of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte.

In fairness, the circumstances surrounding the Little Corporal’s later years, death and burial are…unusual. At age 46, he was exiled to the godforsaken island of St. Helena. He was still under English custody when he died, five years later, of stomach cancer, and the Brits refused his final wish: to be buried on the banks of the Seine. So the body of Europe’s most famous emperor was buried, sans pomp, underneath three stone slabs and two droopy willow trees.
Continue reading →

The Antisocial Network

By: | October 18, 2010

In his October 8 New York Times op-ed column, David Brooks offered his assessment of the character of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the movie The Social Network:  “It’s not that he’s a bad person.  He’s just never been house-trained.  He’s been raised in a culture reticent to talk about social and moral conduct.”

This diagnosis of cultural permissiveness is consistent with Brooks’s conservative philosophy.  But not only is his definition of a generation a dubious extrapolation from the actions of one decidedly idiosyncratic individual, it overlooks a more tangible, more immediate cause for that individual’s success through self-immolation:  He’s wired that way.  The Zuckerberg character displays the three classic symptoms of someone who falls on the autism spectrum. He lacks social skills.  He has trouble with empathy.  He finds his greatest fulfillment in restricted behavior.

Continue reading →