Guest Author • Sep 18, 2018 •
Dr JJ Eldridge Writing this article and contributing to this series comes at a strange time for me. While I was assigned male at birth I have struggled with my gender for a long time. It has become apparent to me that I am transgender; my sex assigned at birth does not match my gender identity, which I … Read More
Guest Author • Mar 20, 2018 •
Christoph Adami, Michigan State University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Mathematical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking was best known for his work exploring the relationship between black holes and quantum physics. A black hole is the remnant of a dying supermassive star that’s fallen into itself; these remnants contract … Read More
Guest Author • Mar 15, 2018 •
by Jean Balchin Yesterday I was incredibly saddened to hear about the passing of world-renowned cosmologist and pioneer in theoretical physics, Stephen Hawking. Here are a collection of tributes to the great man. Professor David Wiltshire, Theoretical Physicist, University of Canterbury, comments: Stephen Hawking. Wikimedia Commons. “Stephen was the most courageous person I have known. He had … Read More
John Kerr • Mar 28, 2017 •
One of the world’s most well known and entertaining science communicators is coming to New Zealand. Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson will be coming to New Zealand – for the first time ever – this July to talk life, the universe and everything. He will be performing his show A Cosmic Perspective in Christchurch (July 4) and Auckland (July 9). Both … Read More
Jean Balchin • Mar 23, 2017 •
Earlier this afternoon, I was fortunate enough to interview Dr Brian Greene, the renowned theoretical physicist and string theorist. Dr Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, and is recognized for a number of revolutionary discoveries in his field of superstring theory. I spoke with Dr Greene about his theories on string theory and multiverses, … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 15, 2017 •
By Alister Graham, Swinburne University of Technology Our love of black holes continues to grow as our knowledge of these celestial bodies expands. The latest news is the discovery of a rare “middleweight” black hole, a relative newcomer to the black hole family. We already knew that some black holes are just a few times the mass … Read More
Guest Author • Apr 29, 2016 •
By Stephen Hughes, Queensland University of Technology This title will probably come as a surprise to you. Astrophysics concerns enormous scales of space, time and energy; kitchens are relatively small, homely places. So how can there be a connection between astrophysics and the kitchen? Have you ever dropped a just-opened plastic bottle of milk or fruit juice … Read More
SciBooks • Mar 12, 2014 •
by Veronika Meduna REVIEW: What a wonderful world: one man’s attempt to explain the big stuff by Marcus Chown Faber and Faber, 2013 Marcus Chown is well known for his books about astrophysics and anything else related to the universe, but in his latest offering, What a Wonderful World, he leaves his own galactic turf to explore … Read More
Elf Eldridge • May 19, 2011 •
So the big astronomy news of today is the announcement of “Unbound planetary mass objects” around stars towards the centre of our galaxy. Now before i get too excited, I should probably mention that we have discovered large free-floating planets before (maybe) but these have been confined to large clouds of dust and gas near star forming regions – this … Read More
Aimee Whitcroft • Jul 06, 2010 •
I really, really hate it when events don’t have an online presence. I like broadcasting things. Not to be able to do so easily, particularly when it’s something interesting, is upsetting. I have fitlets of pique thereover. As it were. Anyhoo, on to the point of this post: tomorrow, in … Read More