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I have a new story published by New Scientist today. For me, it was a particular thrill to swap detailed emails with physicist Alexei Starobinsky, who predicted the gravitational waves way back in 1979. His extraordinary theoretical insight has been vindicated by this new discovery. I so wanted to call this article 'Who's the daddy?'
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I have a new article published by The Guardian:
"At least half a dozen scientists are in the frame for a Nobel if the discovery of primordial gravitational waves is confirmed – but only three can get it
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I have a new article published by ESA:
"A lost student experiment has been found in the arctic circle by Swedish reindeer hunters. The return of Suaineadh, which tested a deployable structure in space, means that thousands of images and reams of data thought lost can now be analysed to show the experiment’s performance. ..."
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The paperback of The Day Without Yesterday will be released on 3 April 2014.
"Europe is marching blindly into the First World War and Berlin is in a storm of nationalist marches and army recruitment. Albert Einstein anticipates the carnage to come when his university colleagues begin work on poison gas to 'shorten the war'. He is also struggling with the collapse of his marriage in the wake of an illicit affair. Increasingly isolated, Einstein finds his academic work sidelined with few people entertaining his outlandish new way of understanding the universe.
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I have a new story posted by the Guardian. This is the confirmation of the story I published last Friday that we were on the brink of a major cosmological announcement.
"Scientists have heralded a "whole new era" in physics with the detection of "primordial gravitational waves" – the first tremors of the big bang.
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I have a new article posted by the Guardian. It is a Q&A designed to help make sense today's astounding cosmological announcement.
"What does the apparent discovery of gravitational waves by the Bicep telescope say about inflation and the big bang?
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I have an exciting new story posted on The Guardian.
"Discovery of gravitational waves by Bicep telescope at south pole could give scientists insights into how universe was born.
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The Measure of Dreams is a short story set before the events of The Sky's Dark Labyrinth. It features Johannes Kepler and his attempt to construct a model of the Universe by turning it into a drinks dispenser. Yes: a drinks dispenser.
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Today was the day that the €1 billion spacecraft Rosetta woke up from 31 months in hibernation. I spent the day with at ESA's control centre in Darmstadt, Germany. I was keeping a live blog updated for my Across the Universe blog for The Guardian all day, and I also wrote some reports for New Scientist.
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I have a new feature article published in New Scientist this week:
"YOU know that anxious feeling the night before an exam or a job interview, when the alarm clock absolutely, positively has to work. Take that feeling and double it. Multiply it by a large factor, add the number you first thought of... you get the picture. That's how restless mission controllers at the European Space Agency are feeling right now.