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The Impact of NASA’s Kepler Mission on Science Fiction

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

We’ve just had a major announcement concerning first results from NASA’s Kepler Mission. Before providing links to the details and reactions to the details, let me describe what the mission does and what it will continue to do.  Kepler is basically just a big digital camera in space that takes pictures of a field of […]

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Advice for High School Students Interested in Majoring in Astronomy in College

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

I made some strategic errors in my career, mostly because I split my energy between engineering and astronomy double majoring when it would have been better to commit to one or the other early.   By most measures, I’ve done fine, now being a tenured professor at the University of Wyoming, with a salary, research, and […]

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Negotiating an Academic Job Offer

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

I’ve written about applying for jobs and given some tips about on-campus interviews.   I wanted to give some brief advice about what to do when you actually get a tenure-track job offer.   My advice will be pretty general, but with a few more specific things for science jobs like astronomy. First, celebrate.   It’s hard to […]

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Final Thoughts (for now) on “The Gaskell Affair”

Friday, December 17th, 2010

OK, I’ve already written two posts on this, an initial one with a lot of links and a follow-up after I’d gathered more information for myself.   I’ve continued to read some documents, in particular several hundred pages of depositions.   Maybe only several hundred…there are thousands there, and depositions are boring mostly. My opinions have evolved […]

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Follow Up on Martin Gaskell’s Lawsuit of the University of Kentucky

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

I’ve had some time to read more about what is going on and think I’m getting a clearer picture.   Let me restate the basic issue with greater understanding than I did before. Martin Gaskell is an astronomer in my subfield, and a pretty good one, and someone I consider a friend.   He’s also pretty religious […]

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Rejected Astronomer Suing University of Kentucky over Religious Discrmination

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

I was going to write about something else today, but saw this story about Martin Gaskell, a friend of mine.   There’s also a blurb at the Chronicle of Higher Education with a few really interesting comments.   Atheist blogger PZ Meyers has a post about the story, most of which I agree with, frankly, but I […]

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Nine Tips for Success on the On-Campus Interview for Faculty Jobs

Friday, December 10th, 2010

I recently posted some thoughts and advice for landing a faculty job.   I didn’t mention much about what to do, and not do, on the actual live interview short-listed candidates get.   I’ll try to stay general, but my expertise is based on experiences on both sides of the process in the field of astronomy and […]

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Your Tax Dollars at Work: Science Fiction Stories Online Inspired by Launch Pad

Saturday, December 4th, 2010

I’ve been able to get funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation to support my efforts to educate and inspire through science fiction.   One example is the anthology of astronomy-oriented short stories Diamonds in the Sky.   Another is the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers, which is a one week crash course in the […]

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Thoughts and Advice about Landing Faculty Jobs in Astronomy

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

We’re in what I hope is the home stretch of a faculty search for a tenure-track astronomer to join our Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Wyoming.   I probably should have posted something a couple of weeks ago after the first couple stages of the process were complete, or wait until it’s […]

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Walking on the Moon? Don’t Be Stupid….

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

I got an email from a professor I know. I know a lot of professors, and I won’t say who or where, but this should be more broadly known: This past week I helped grade midterm exams for Calculus I…One of the problems involved an astronaut on the lunar surface throwing a rock vertically into […]

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Why Should We Colonize Space?

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

It came up in a post last week (and follow-up comments, thanks James Nicoll!) that E. O. Wilson thinks it would be a bad idea to colonize space, apparently because this is a “ruinously expensive” way to deal with overpopulation.   The big space colony days were in the 1970s, after we’d landed men on the […]

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Do Physicists Believe in God?

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

We’re going to treat astronomers as a subset of physicists here. Sure, some do.   A lot don’t. One time I went camping with a group of guys I didn’t know too well.   They came from a wide range of backgrounds, and a lot of them were Christians of various fundamentalist stripes.   One of these guys […]

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