Archive March - May 2007

31 May 2007
XMM-Newton reveals X-rays from gas streams around young stars
I have a new story published by ESA:

XMM-Newton has surveyed nearly two hundred forming stars to reveal how streams of matter fall onto the young stars’ magnetic atmospheres and radiate X-rays.  The results defy astronomers’ expectations, as the streams of falling matter interact with the star’s outer atmosphere, cooling it, while the ejected streams of gas heat up in shocks as they are ejected from the star.

Read the full story for free here.]

29 May 2007
The Sun Kings at the University of Hertfordshire
I am to give a lecture to launch my book in the UK this Friday (1st June 2007) at the University of Hertfordshire.  I studied for both of my astronomy degrees at UH, and remain a visiting fellow, so it is with great pleasure that I am looking forward to speaking there in a few days time.  It is a special place to me.

The lecture is being held in the Lindop Building, College Lane Campus, Hatfield, at 7.00pm.  Light refreshments will be available from 6.30pm and a Reception, sponsored by Princeton University Press, to celebrate the launch of the book will follow the lecture. Copies of Stuart’s book will be available for purchase.

This event is free, but please email d.crann@herts.ac.uk for tickets, or leave a message on 020 8457 2705.

I look forward to seeing as many of my more local readers as possible.

18 May 2007
“takes us into the fascinating world of 19th-century British astronomy…” Library Journal
What a pleasure for me to read another complimentary review of The Sun Kings, this time in Library Journal. Margaret F. Dominy writes:

“Clark's style engages us immediately and holds us throughout. He portrays the science of the times as high drama in which rivalry between scientists was intense, severe, and, in many cases, personal. Not only will readers get a true feel for the science of the 19th century and the characters involved, but they'll learn a little solar science as well. This book will appeal to anyone interested in history and science, a great combination. …

”You can read the full review here.

There is also a brief review by Dennis Lythgoe in the Deseret Morning News. Read that review here.

16 May 2007
On the hunt for cosmic fossils
I have a new feature published in New Scientist this week (issue 2604, cover date 19 May 2007).

When it comes to galaxies, astronomers have a lot in common with Victorian fathers. They have a pretty good idea of what is involved in their conception and they know what the end product looks like. But the actual birth itself is a total mystery.

Using optical telescopes, astronomers can peer back through space to a time around 1 billion years after the big bang. Even at this early stage there are galaxies, not as fully grown as the ones today, but recognisable as galaxies nonetheless.

To look back further in time means studying microwaves rather than light, and that's when we lose sight of galaxies altogether. Instead, we see a universal bath of radiation that carries the imprint of the way the universe looked just 300,000 years after the big bang. At that point in cosmic history, there were no galaxies - just rippling undulations in the density of...

The complete article is 2254 words long and is available here.
(a subscription is required)

Also in the same issue of New Scientist, I have a news story:

‘Dark energy’ – the constant we can't live without
It's like the gatecrasher who won't leave the party. The cosmological constant, the simplest explanation of why the expansion of the universe is accelerating, just won't go away, much as astronomers would like to see the back of it.

The cosmological constant originated as a "fudge factor" that Einstein added to general relativity to square its predictions with a universe that he thought was static. He later disowned it, when it was realised that the universe is expanding, but with the discovery in the late 1990s that this expansion is accelerating, the cosmological constant came back into favour.

In essence, the cosmological constant represents the "dark energy" of space-time that repulses gravity. There is one huge problem with it, though: the value for the cosmological constant predicted by particle physics is about 120 orders of magnitude greater than is consistent with the observed expansion of the universe. …

The complete article is 513 words long and can be read on the web here but a subscription is required.

15 May 2007
Amazon.co.uk gets early stock of The Sun Kings
This week amazon.co.uk were showing stock of The Sun Kings although the official publication date is not until 4 June.  So, if you want a copy ahead of everyone else, hurry over and order now!

Also the first reader’s reviews of The Sun Kings have appeared on amazon.com, and they are five-star rated too.  Thank you Ralph G. Marantino and Josephine Clementine Pilgrim for your kind words, I’m thrilled you enjoyed the book so much. Read their reviews here, click on the customer reviews link under the title.

14 May 2007
Cluster makes a shocking discovery
I have a new story published by ESA.

ESA’s Cluster was in the right place and time to make a shocking discovery. The four spacecraft encountered a shock wave that kept breaking and reforming – predicted only in theory.

Read the full story here for free.

11 May 2007
BBC Focus wins Consumer Specialist Magazine of the Year
I’m pleased to pass on the good news that my friends at BBC Focus magazine have scooped this major national prize.  Their press release announcing this reads “Origin Publishing acquired Focus in 2002, when the title was near closing. Every year since, the magazine has posted a rise in ABC, peaking in February this year with an ABC figure of 59,318, up 3.5% year on year. “What if…?”, published in Autumn 2006, was Focus’s most popular issue, selling 60,048 copies in the UK.

”The judges said: “Geeky but not uncool,” Focus is an “absorbing, fascinating magazine designed with clarity and addressing so many topics which bug and niggle us. Focus’s achievements prove the magazine really has gone from rags to riches.”

To read some of the stories I have written for Focus, pop over to my cover stories page.

I have also had the pleasure of editing some of their features articles for them this past year.  I would like to extend my personal congratulations to my good friends Paul, Sally and the rest of the BBC Focus team.  Keep up the good work.

10 May 2007
X-rays provide a new way to investigate exploding stars
I have new story published by ESA.

ESA’s X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has revealed a new class of exploding stars – where the X-ray emission ‘lives fast and dies young’. The identification of this particular class of explosions gives astronomers a valuable new constraint to help them model and understand stellar explosions. …

Read the full story for free here

9 May 2007
The Sun Kings: “well-researched… very well written… a fascinating work.”  Publisher’s weekly

Another great review of The Sun Kings has been published, this time in Publisher’s Weekly. Here are the highlights:

“In this well-researched and very well-written book, Clark tells the embattled, little-known history of modern astronomy, a spry tale full of intrigue, jealousy, spite, dedication and perseverance. Peopled with a large, colorful cast, author and editor Clark delivers a tale rich in conflict and passion… Clark's parade of historical characters dramatize the narrative nicely… making this a fascinating work....”

Read the review in full here

8 May 2007
Great deal on The Sun Kings at Amazon.co.uk
The good news keeps on coming.  Amazon.co.uk are now offering a 34 percent discount on The Sun Kings.  Don’t miss this great deal.  Click here.

Barnes and Noble in-store promotion for The Sun Kings
I’m thrilled to announce that Barnes and Noble booksellers in the US have chosen The Sun Kings for a special in-store promotion. They will feature the book in special displays at their top 100 retail locations across America.  Don’t miss it.  The promotion runs from 22 May - 4 June 2007.

Late Night Live interview about The Sun Kings
Today I spend a hugely enjoyable hour at the Australia Broadcasting Corporation studios in London, talking to Phillip Adams (left) for the Australian Late Night Live radio show. We talked about the Sun Kings and just how much solar activity might contribute to global warming.

You can download the programme as a podcast here.

7 May 2007
SETI radio interview about The Sun Kings
I had the great pleasure of being interviewed by Molly Bentley (left), Executive Producer of SETI Institute's Are We Alone? radio show. We spent around 20 minutes talking about The Sun Kings and discussing the epochal events of 2 September 1859.

You can join the 50,000 other listeners who download the weekly podcast by clicking here. My interview starts at 25:50. Be warned, however, that the podcast contains spoilers. If you listen to it, you will hear me give away some of the plot’s twists, turns and surprises. Before my interview, you’ll also hear a fascinating discussion about the newly discovered, potentially habitable planet Gliese 581c.

When you’ve finished listening to this particular episode, go back through their archives and listen to the previous programmes. Each gives a special insight into an aspect of answering the question: Is there life elsewhere in the Universe?

6 May 2007
Guardian podcast update
I’ve just had it confirmed by The Guardian that I’ll be appearing on their 11 June podcast to talk about The Sun Kings. Visit their myspace page to download the latest episode.

5 May 2007
Another good review of The Sun Kings appears

The May 2007 issue of Natural History magazine contains a nice review of The Sun Kings by Laurence A. Marschall. What’s so nice about this review is that Marschall is not only an excellent science writer, but also professor of physics at Gettysburg College, PA. You can read the review here.

More Sun Kings good news: the early demand for the book has taken Amazon.com by surprise. It sold out today but more stocks are on the way. So, don’t stop ordering. Amazon.com are offering a 24 percent discount.

In the UK, click here.

In the US, click here.

4 May 2007
New book deal signed today
Exciting book news today - and not about The Sun Kings!  After a month or so of negotiation, I signed the contract for my next book today in my agent’s office. I don’t want to say too much about the new book at this stage but I am working with a major UK publisher and they have secured a superb North American distribution deal.  I’m now hard at work on the text. It’s going to be different from The Sun Kings but don’t worry – it is still about astronomy.  More details over the coming months.

3 May 2007
European planet hunters on brink of Earth-sized prize
I have a new story published over at New Scientist.

EUROPEAN planet hunters are stealing a march on their American rivals. After last week's discovery of a "habitable" extrasolar planet the mass of five Earths - the smallest yet found - European astronomers have had more good news. Their new space telescope, called COROT, is proving 10 times as sensitive as expected. The spacecraft seems sharp enough to detect planets as small as Earth, a task widely thought impossible in advance of the launch of NASA's Kepler telescope in October 2008.

Read the full story for free here.

Has SOHO ended a 30-year quest for solar ripples?
I have a new story published by ESA today, as well.

The ESA-NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) may have glimpsed long-sought oscillations on the Sun’s surface. The data will reveal details about the core of our star and it contains clues on how the Sun formed, 4.6 thousand million years ago…

Read the full story for free here.

2 May 2007
spiked greatest innovation survey
I was asked to take part in spiked’s on-line survey of ’What’s the Greatest Innovation?’

spiked is an internet-based magazine for free-thinkers.  Here’s how they described the survey:

’What’s the Greatest Innovation?’ is a survey of key thinkers in science, technology and medicine, conducted by spiked in collaboration with the research-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Each contributor was asked to identify what he or she sees as the greatest innovation in his or her field. More than a hundred experts and authorities, including half-a-dozen Nobel Laureates, have responded.

The aim of the online survey is to highlight some of the many gains of human ingenuity, and to put the current discussion of innovation into a historical context.

What did I claim was the greatest innovation?  Find out here.

Read the rest of the entries here.

There will also be a debate on this subject on 6 June 2007.  Find out more about the event here. I’ll be attending, so come up and say hello.

1 May 2007
A great new review of The Sun Kings
SEED magazine have reviewed the Sun Kings in their May-June issue. I am pleased to say they really liked it. Their review finishes with: “Meticulously researched, The Sun Kings chronicles the largely untold story of the inception of modern astrophysics in marvellous detail.” You can visit SEED on the web at www.seedmagazine.com.

29 April 2007
Dark mappers take a gamma-ray view
I have a new story published over at New Scientist.

Take away all the known sources of gamma rays in the universe, and you might be left with this picture – something a new NASA probe could soon see. If it does, astronomers will be elated because they will have finally "seen" dark matter. …

Read the full (if brief) story for free here.

28 April 2007
Tony Blair and Gliese 581
Whilst driving through Hampshire today, I spotted a chalkboard outside a pub.  Instead of advertising the special offers it referred to the habitable planet discovered by the European Southern Observatory (see April 25 blog entry for more details).  The board read something to the effect: “Gliese 581! I think Tony Blair should go and live on it.”  Who says the general public do not appreciate science?  Of course they do – so long as it means something to them.

26 April 2007
Climate catastrophes in the Solar System
I have a new story published over at ESA.

Earth sits between two worlds that have been devastated by climate catastrophes. In the effort to combat global warming, our neighbours can provide valuable insights into the way climate catastrophes affect planets.

Modelling Earth’s climate to predict its future has assumed tremendous importance in the light of mankind’s influence on the atmosphere. The climate of our two neighbours is in stark contrast to that of our home planet, making data from ESA’s Venus Express and Mars Express invaluable to climate scientists…

Read the full story for free here

Designing for Fire
Also today, I have a new story published by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

On 25 July 2006, a derelict flat in Dalmarnock caught fire. The blaze started in the lounge and spread to the surrounding rooms before it was extinguished by the fire services. The fire was no accident. Neither was it a crime. It was a scientific experiment…

Read the full story for free here.

The story ties in with the BBC Horizon television programme Skyscraper Fire Fighters.

25 April 2007
First potentially habitable world discovered
Amazing news from the European Southern Observatory!

Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and capable of having liquid water. Using the ESO 3.6-m telescope, a team of Swiss, French and Portuguese scientists discovered a super-Earth about 5 times the mass of the Earth that orbits a red dwarf, already known to harbour a Neptune-mass planet. The astronomers have also strong evidence for the presence of a third planet with a mass about 8 Earth masses.

Read the full press release here.

24 April 2007
Armagh Planetarium has a page about the September 1859 solar flares and aurora that forms the pivotal event in my book The Sun Kings.  Most of the links are to technical papers on the subject.  They also have scans of the weather logs kept at the Armagh Observatory that mention the magnificent aurora.

Visit the page here.

A Massive Explosion on the Sun
Also today, there is a new press release from NASA, talking about the Japanese solar telescope Hinode. This international mission has captured a solar flare exploding from the sun.

The press release begins:
Astronomers are calling the Japanese Hinode spacecraft a "Hubble for the sun." Watch this movie and you'll see why:

The footage, gathered by Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) on Dec. 13, 2006, shows sunspot 930 unleashing a powerful X-class solar flare. It's one of the most detailed movies of a flare solar physicists have ever seen. The SOT has a resolution of 0.2 arcseconds or 0.00006 degrees. Putting those numbers into perspective, the telescope can see features on the sun as small as 90 miles wide from its orbit 93 million miles away…

Read the full press release and watch the solar flare move here.

23 April 2007
Last week, the UK’s National Astronomy Meeting took place at the University of Central Lancashire. The Royal Astronomical Society issued a multitude of press releases to talk about the work being presented. My favourites were:

Did William Herschel discover the rings of Uranus in the 18th century?

Astronomers map out the dark matter in nine galaxies

Nano-nauts! These are millimetre-sized space probes that can be blown around Mars’s surface like dust.

You can read all the other press releases here

21 April 2007
Millions spent, but was gravity result worth it?
I have a new story published in the 21 April edition of New Scientist. I co-wrote the story with New Scientist’s deputy features editor Valerie Jamieson.

AFTER 40 years of planning and hundreds of millions of dollars, NASA announced last week the first results from the Gravity Probe B experiment, which was designed to measure how Earth warps the fabric of space-time. The results may have been scooped, though, by astronomers bouncing lasers off the moon decades ago.

NASA launched Gravity Probe B (GPB) in April 2004. The satellite was equipped with precision-engineered gyroscopes to measure two effects predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity. In one, called the geodetic effect, Earth's gravity dents space-time such that it should tilt each gyroscope by 0.0018 degrees over the course of a year. In a second, more subtle effect, called frame-dragging or gravitomagnetism, Earth drags space-time along with it as it rotates.

The GPB team only reported a measurement of the geodetic effect. Team leader Francis Everitt of Stanford University in California says that the team has seen…

The complete article is 637 words long and can be read on the web here but a subscription is required.

20 April 2007
XMM-Newton pinpoints intergalactic polluters
I have a new story published by the European Space Agency.

Warm gas escaping from the clutches of enormous black holes could be the key to a form of intergalactic ‘pollution’ that made life possible, according to new results from ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory, published today…

Read the full story for free here

This story also formed the basis of a press release from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts. You can read that here.

19 April 2007
Last night, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Wycombe Astronomical Society about my book The Sun Kings. This was the first time I had delivered the lecture and everyone made me extremely welcome. Twelve people even placed advance orders for the book. Thanks to all who attended, especially those who bought The Sun Kings. I look forward to hearing your reaction to it and seeing you all again soon. Visit them here.

16 April 2007
Modified gravity reigns in star bars
I have a new story published on NewScientistSpace.com. It’s only short but it’s interesting.

There's no need to invoke dark matter to explain why nearly 80 per cent of spiral galaxies have a bar of stars or dust running through them. A tweaked version of Newton's law of gravitation does the job better…

Read the full story for free here.

12 April 2007
A new study of living cells could revolutionise the way we test drugs
I have a new story published by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).  It is not about astronomy but it is fascinating.

Researchers have made a breakthrough by detecting the electrical equivalent of a living cell's last gasp. The work takes them a step closer to both seeing the 'heartbeat' of a living cell and a new way to test drugs. …

Read the full story for free here

11 April 2007
Guardian podcast
I have been asked to appear on the Guardian’s weekly science podcast to talk about The Sun Kings.  The Guardian is one of the UK’s daily national newspapers and its science reporting is highly regarded.  I’ll post more details as I get them.  In the meantime, check out their myspace page where you can listen to their previous podcasts.
You can also check out my own myspace page. Be my ‘friend’!

4 April 2007
Solar activity affects GPS
There was a fascinating but slightly chilling news release this morning about the effects of solar activity on the Global Positioning System.  It was released by the US’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  It begins:

“During an unprecedented solar eruption last December, researchers at Cornell University confirmed solar radio bursts can have a serious impact on the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other communication technologies using radio waves. The findings were announced today in Washington, D.C., at the first Space Weather Enterprise Forum – an assembly of academic, government and private sector scientists focused on examining the Earth's ever-increasing vulnerability to space weather impacts.”

It continues: “In December, we found the effect on GPS receivers were more profound and widespread than we expected,” said Paul Kintner, Ph.D., professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University. “Now we are concerned more severe consequences will occur during the next solar maximum.”

Read the full press release here.

To read about the effects on Earth of the largest solar storm in history, check out my book The Sun Kings.

30 March 2007
Rosetta and New Horizons watch Jupiter in joint campaign
I have a new story published by the European Space Agency

ESA's Rosetta and NASA's New Horizons are working well together in their joint campaign to observe Jupiter. A preliminary analysis of the data from Rosetta's Alice ultraviolet spectrometer indicates that the data quality is excellent and that good science is expected to follow.

Read the full story here for free.

Also, New Horizons took this amazing picture of a volcano erupting on Jupiter’s moon Io.  Find out more here.

12 March 2007
Uncrewed space plane passes first key test
I have a new story published over at NewScientistSpace.com

Italian engineers are thrilled with the successful first flight of their unmanned space vehicle (USV) programme – despite the test vehicle ending up in three pieces, one of which is now lost on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

Read the full story here for free.

1 March 2007
Welcome to my blog.

I am a science journalist and this is my place to enjoy my work and science in general with you. I particularly enjoy astronomy and astrophysics because that is what I trained in but my interest is captured by all sciences.

I believe that science is fun and wonderful. It should be celebrated – even the experiments that end in failure.

I'm currently fascinated by the level of the Sun's influence on modern climate change – but this does not mean I am a 'climate sceptic'. The research I have read convinces me that manmade emissions are the major cause of global warming. However, I have also read convincing papers that claim to show the magnetic activity of the Sun is responsible for up to one third of the current warming. My question is: what if the Sun's magnetic activity drops and global warming goes down as a result? How do we keep up the pressure to enact pollution controls?

I am also fascinated by the nature of the dark energy – the mysterious substance that is forcing the Universe to accelerate. Is it really some kind of energy in space, a new force of nature, or a deviation from Einstein's explanation of gravity? Whatever it is, it is magnificently fascinating and will usher in a revolution in thinking when we finally explain it.

Archive index

December 2007 - February 2008

September - November 2007

June - August 2007

March - May 2007