Select Page ::

2009 Sponsors

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

.Astronomy is a young and growing community and the 2009 conference is being generously supported by the following organisations:

>> ASTRON

>> British Council

>> Lorentz Center

>> NWO

>> RadioNet

The main purpose of the sponsorship is to enable young people to participate, who do not have access to funds to attend this conference.
It will also enable us to acquire some hardware for the Hack Day (eg. Arduino kits) and to socialise during a week that promises to be memorable for everyone.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

When in Holland…

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

If you’re coming to .Astronomy, friggin’ awesome, we can’t wait to meet you. We at .Astro towers thought that maybe it was time to send out some local information to help you all plan your trips and get as excited about the week as we are. Most of the practical arrangements are smoothly taken care of by our excellent Lorentz Center assistant Corrie, so we have the luxure of looking after the fun stuff.

To give you an idea of what to expect, Sarah has put together a map, see below, of useful places and some local favourite hangouts.

We’re currently working on the conference programme and will be back with news on that in early November. If you have any questions or ideas, email us at poc AT dotastronomy.com. We want to hear from you!

View .Astronomy locations in a larger map

Getting there

At a stone’s throw from Schiphol airport and several major transport hubs, Leiden is exceptionally well connected to the world. If you’re flying into Schiphol, there are a couple of options for making your way to Leiden. The most convenient is to catch a train to Leiden Central (Centraal in Dutch), these run about every 10 minutes and take between 15 and 20 minutes. They usually leave from platform 5-6 and a single costs around 5 euro. You have to buy a ticket before boarding and there are plenty of yellow ticket machines and ticket counters in the airport/station hall.

From Leiden Central it’s a 15 minute walk to the Lorentz Center and a little further to the Bastion Hotel. Given the time of year, you can jump in a bus or taxi, both of which can be found just outside the station if you take the “Centrum” exit. The Lorentz Center website has detailed instructions and links to timetables.

You can take a taxi all the way from the airport to Leiden too of course, this costs around 40 euro. But the motorway is often very congested between Leiden and Schiphol so you may not save very much on time.

We’d also like to flag up some alternatives to flying for those who are green minded or don’t like flying. If you’re coming from Belgium, France or Germany we recommend you look into trains. The Leiden area is well integrated on the European rail network – to Belgium and France on the high-speed Thalys trains (get the train to Den Haag/The Hague and change there for a short hop to Leiden), and to Germany on the always efficient Deutsche Bahn services (change at Utrecht or Schiphol for Leiden).

From Britain you can get the boat from Harwich to Hoek van Holland, during the daytime or overnight, from where it’s around 30 mins by train to Leiden.

Local transportation

Leiden is well served by buses, which connect the centre of town to the surrounding villages and the coast. The Lorentz Center and the Bastion Hotel, where most of the out-of-towners will stay, are situated in the village of Oegstgeest, around 2-3 km from central Leiden along the road to Noordwijk and the coast.The Center is co-located with Leiden Observatory, the University’s astronomy department, in the oddly-shaped J.H. Oort building. Again, the Lorentz Center have all the info, directions and timetables on their webpages to help you get around. More bus timetables and travel info can be found here.

There is also the option of renting a bike from the Lorentz Center. This is by far the best way of getting around Leiden and its surroundings, as it’s flat as a pancake and bike rules the roads in the Netherlands. But bring gloves and wet weather gear!

Accommodation

The Lorentz Center will take care of hotel bookings at the Bastion Hotel, which is within walking distance from the Center (see the above map). If you want to look at other options, they can help you with that too so feel free to contact them at the address provided in the email confirmation you’ve received. A listing is provided here.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

We certainly don’t intend for the week to be all hard work and no play – and Leiden is a great place for relaxing, having a little party, or having a big party – whichever you prefer. On Monday we will have a wine & cheese party at the Lorenz Center. This is usually an occasion to which the rest of the astronomy department, who are located in the same building, are also invited, to give everyone the chance to meet and mingle.

On Wednesday we’ll be having a conference dinner at Scheltema, in an old converted factory in the old town in Leiden. It’s a fabulous location that we’re excited to check out. We’re still finalising the arrangements for this and we’ll be back with info as soon as all is known.

The map above has a selection of local bars and restaurants with some local knowledge to help you make a selection.

Leiden is also connected throughout the night to Amsterdam’s Central Station.

.Astronomy 2009 Dates .Astronomy 2009 will be held in the Lorentz Center, part...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Are There Pesticides in Your Soup? Dunk a Pollution Dipstick to Find Out. | 80beats

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

Pesticide-dipstick-web Environmental monitoring is often expensive, cumbersome, and time-intensive. Equipment that can run quick and easy tests for pollutants like pesticides in our food are almost nonexistent. However, researchers in Canada are working on a new biomonitoring technique using treated paper on a stick that can quickly identify trace amounts of pesticides in your chicken soup, or your first early morning cup of joe [Technology Review]. Could these dipsticks lead to DIY pollution monitoring one day? That may still be far off, but this technology could give researchers a reliable and cheap way to get a better picture of what pollutants—even at trace amounts—are in the environment, and how they interact with our bodies.

In the study, published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, the researchers describe a new paper-based test strip that changes color shades depending on the amount of pesticide present. In laboratory studies using food and beverage samples intentionally contaminated with common pesticides, the test strips accurately identified minute amounts of pesticides. The test strips, which produced results in less than 5 minutes, could be particularly useful in developing countries or remote areas that may lack access to expensive testing equipment and electricity, they note [R&D Magazine]. If the dipsticks pan out, restaurant customers may one day have more to complain about than a stray hair in their soup.

Image: ACS

Can an iPhone App Decipher Your Baby’s Cries? | Discoblog

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

baby-translator-web A new baby translator is now available for your iPhone. It won’t translate your babies gurgles and screams into “lavish attention on me, and entertain me,” or “I want what the cat’s eating,” but the inventors claim the app will analyze your baby’s cries and tell you roughly what the little one is trying to say.

According to Fox News:

The Cry Translator uses patented technology to analyze the tone and duration of the cries and match them to one of five possible types: hungry, sleepy, annoyed, stressed or bored.

No, the translator wasn’t built by Herb Powell (of the memorable Simpsons episode), but rather by Spanish developer Biloop Technologic. The developer claims that the app was shown to be 90 percent accurate in clinical trials, although they don’t say if these trials were published in a scientific journal (so presumably not). However, if your wailing baby befuddles you, or if you want to be an obnoxious back-seat parent, you can pick up the translator for $9.99.

Image: engadget

Reminder: Carl Sagan Day | Bad Astronomy

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

A quick reminder: the Carl Sagan Day celebration will be at Broward College in southern Florida on Saturday! Speakers include James Randi, Jeffrey Bennett, David Morrison, and me. There will be lots of stuff for kids and astronomy enthusiasts of all ages. Check my blog post from Monday for more info.

Also, there will be a reception that night at 8:00 p.m. as well. Requested donation is $10. I hope to see some BABloggees there!

Ripped From the Journals: The Biggest Discoveries of the Week | 80beats

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 3
Two studies in PNAS focused on the wildlife and landscape of East Africa. In the first, researchers looked back in history to Kenya’s infamous man-eating lions, which reportedly devoured 135 railroad laborers in 1898. The two lions were eventually shot, killed, stuffed, and shipped to Chicago’s Field Museum for display–which allowed researchers to analyze samples of the lions’ bones and fur. By comparing the isotopes present in the man-eating lions to those found in other lions, humans, wildebeest, and buffalo, the researchers could precisely determine the lions’ diet. The results brought the body count down considerably: The scientists estimate that one of the lions ate 24 people, while the other gobbled up 11. The second study looked ahead, and predicted that Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, could lose its distinctive ice cap by 2022 due to global warming.

Journal of the American Medical Association, November 4
A new study of hospitalizations in California due to swine flu has highlighted a neglected risk factor: obesity. In the study group of patients whose weight was known, researchers found that 25 percent of the people were morbidly obese, although less than 5 percent of the U.S. population falls into that category. Researchers also found that 58 percent of these hospitalized patients were obese–in the population as a whole, about 34 percent of people are obese. The increased risks come partially from health problems associated with obesity, like heart disease, lung ailments, and diabetes. But physiological factors may also be to blame: The lungs of obese patients are squeezed by the abdomen pressing upward on the diaphragm.

Nature, November 5
A new astronomy study has solved a mystery that began brewing in 1680, when Britain’s first Astronomer Royal spotted a supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia. Supernova typically collapse into a super-dense object like a black hole or a neutron star, but for decades astronomers have looked for such an object at the center of the supernova remnant, to no avail. Now, a new examination suggests that there is indeed a baby neutron star there, but it escaped detection because it’s swaddled in an unusual atmosphere of carbon gas. Further studies of the 330-year-old star will give researchers insight into how such stars mature. Another study brings us from the macro to the micro, with an investigation into the evolution of bacteria. Researchers forced bacteria to evolve in constantly changing conditions, so that natural selection couldn’t produce microbes that were ideally suited to a single environment. Instead, researchers proved that the bacteria hedged their bets by evolving into a strain that could form several different shapes from the same genetic material. The will to survive: It’s an amazing thing.

Science, November 6
The biggest study from Science reveals a very promising treatment for the fatal, inherited brain disease that was made famous by the movie Lorenzo’s Oil. Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is caused by a faulty gene that leads to the destruction of nerve fibers’ insulating sheaths; without that insulation, electrical signals can’t be transmitted. The progressive disease is usually diagnosed in young boys, who typically die before adulthood. In the new experimental treatment, researchers used a deactivated HIV virus to ferry a working gene into the stem cells found in the patients’ bone marrows. Since the virus integrates itself permanently into the DNA of the cells it enters, researchers hope the patients will keep the working genes for the rest of their lives. More than two years after the treatment, the patients show no sign of further deterioration, and are able to live relatively normal lives. While the boys will continue to be monitored for side effects, the study brings fresh hope not just to ALD sufferers, but also to those who believe that gene therapy holds tremendous medical promise, despite earlier setbacks.

current-biology-11-3 Current Biology, November 3
When Charles Darwin and the crew of the HMS Beagle arrived at the remote Falkland Islands, 300 miles from the tip of Argentina, they wondered how the islands came to be populated with the strange Falkland wolves. The small wolves were the only mammals present on the islands, and one theory of their origin posited that they were descended from dogs brought over by Native Americans. Now a new genetic study of four museum specimens (sadly, the wolves have since gone extinct) has proven that theory wrong. The study showed that the wolves shared a common ancestor at least 70,000 years ago, which suggests that the wolves arrived on the islands long before the first humans made it to the new world.

Alternative Landscapes | The Loom

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

Leave it to the Boston Globe’s Big Picture to pick out a staggering portfolio of pictures of Mars.

Mother Tongue, Indeed: Newborn’s Cries Mimic Mama’s Accent | 80beats

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

baby-crying Babies pick up their parents’ accents while still in the womb, according to a new study. After studying the crying patterns of 30 French and 30 German newborns, researchers concluded that the French newborns cried with a rising “accent” while the German babies’ cries had a falling inflection [BBC News]. The researchers believe that by mimicking their mothers’ inflections, the babies are attempting to form an early bond with their mothers.

Scientists already knew that a baby in the womb can memorize sounds from the outside world, and is particularly sensitive to the melodies of her mother’s language. But the new research showed an “extremely early” impact of native language and confirmed that babies’ cries are their first proper attempts to communicate specifically with their mothers [Reuters]. The data support the idea that crying seeds language development for infants, according to the scientists, who published their research in the journal Current Biology.

To hear the different between German and French crying babies for yourself, click here to listen.

Image: flickr / chalky lives

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up | Cosmic Variance

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

Lead paragraph from the Times Online UK about the latest LHC snafu:

The rehabilitation of the beleaguered Large Hadron Collider was on hold tonight after the failure of one of its powerful cooling units caused by an errant chunk of baguette.

Pray this doesn’t get passed | Bad Astronomy

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

I was going to write about how Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and John Kerry (D-MA) were trying to somewhat slimily slip a provision into the health care bill about paying for prayer-based health services, but then wouldn’tyouknowit, Steve Novella (who apparently does not need to sleep or eat or breathe) beat me to it. Besides his take-down of the odd and wholly unrealistic beliefs of Christian Scientists, I’ll note that is has been pretty definitively proven that prayer doesn’t work in healing. So not only is this provision unconstitutional, it’s just an all-around bad idea.

Careidolia | Bad Astronomy

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

OK, I know that some people see the face of their religious icons in random things. I’ve written about this a zillion times. And I know that sometimes it’s just pareidolia, our tendency to see faces in random objects. And I know that people will think it’s a miracle, when really it’s the end-product of thousands of generations of the evolution of our pattern-seeking abilities.

But then there’s stuff like this: a guy is "clueless" about how the face of Jesus appeared on his truck window, and why it persists day after day.

Oh, I have a clue. It’s clearly not random, which means it’s either a) divine, or 2) drawn on by someone. My conclusion that it’s (2) comes from having a daughter who would take her finger and draw her name in the misty back window of my car when she was younger. And also doing it myself when I was a kid. And seeing eighty bazillion examples of this as a human living in America.

So I think someone drew it on the window. The oil from their finger doesn’t wash off with water, so every morning the picture reappears with the advent (advent! Haha! A little funny for the upcoming season) on the morning dew.

But, of course, that’s just me. When I hear hoofbeats I think horses, not zebras. And since I don’t live near a zoo or in the African plains, I’m guessing what we have here is a horse-drawn carriage.

Um. Well. You know what I mean.

Picture credit: (AP Photo/Johnson City Press, Lee Talbert)

Slate Reply to Specter Up–We Need a National Dialogue on Synthetic Biology | The Intersection

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

My latest contribution to the Slate book club on Denialism is here. Most of the discussion concerns how to prompt a broader national debate on the subject of synthetic biology, a branch of science with revolutionary possibility that most Americans have never even heard of. Alas, I’m not optimistic this will change any time soon:

In today’s media world, you really need a national leader to broach such a conversation—e.g., President Obama, as you suggest in your book. While I’d be happy to be proven wrong, though, I doubt he has the time to bring up such a dark-horse topic, especially in light of all the other policy fires that must be put out. Without a presidential initiative, we lack an adequate national forum for discussing the complex and crucial problems that science lays before us. (Don’t expect synthetic biology to come up on Oprah; as you point out, she is too busy providing a platform for vaccine skeptics like Jenny McCarthy.)

As a result, synthetic biology may be fully upon us before people start thinking about it. And it will likely come to broader attention only as a result of some kind of political controversy—just as occurred with embryonic stem cell research or genetically modified foods. At that point, I fear, we’ll simply become polarized over the issue.

You can read my full reply here.

LHC Shut Down By Wayward Baguette, Dropped by Bird Saboteur | Discoblog

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

large-hadron-collider1-web In truly French fashion, the Large Hadron Collider has shut down by… a baguette. Zut alors!

According to Popular Science:

[A] bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.

The overheating shouldn’t postpone the LHC’s reactivation at the end of the month, but all the delays and mishaps are adding to our paranoid, sci-fi suspicion: Is the LHC being sabotaged from the future? See this Cosmic Variance post for an authoritative take on such a possibility.

Spooky Signals from the Future Telling Us to Cancel the LHC!

Image: CERN

Droid 2.0 Vs iPhone | The Intersection

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

Motorola’s Anroid 2.0 phone debuts today with its slide-out keyboard, 5-megapixel camera, and DVD-quality video recording. The NYTimes calls the Droid 2.0 incredibly fast with superb audio quality, but adds:

..the Droid’s design screams “Star Wars,” if not “Darth Vader.” It’s jet black, all sharp angles and industrial-looking edges. Verizon asked Motorola to soften the design for better female appeal, but it’s hopeless: Droid is all masculine, all the time. When you slide the screen up to reveal the thumb keyboard, there’s no spring-assisted snap; it drags like a plow through soil. It’s all part of the manly man design concept.

Wait I sec… I love Star Wars! Still, it’s a shiny new phone with lots of buzz and anticipation surrounding the release. The Wall Street Journal predicts it may be a big win for Verizon, Motorola and Google, while naming several drawbacks.

I have the original iPhone and am planning to purchase a new one soon. My contract’s been up for a long time and the screen finally cracked last week after an unfortunate collision with hardwood flooring. It’s past time to join a 3G network. However, next year I’m headed to Austin, TX and service sounds unreliable in the region.

So I’m curious to hear from our tech savvy readers about early impressions of the Droid 2.0. Further, what do think is the best smart phone on the market right now?

Tangled Bank News: An Excerpt and More | The Loom

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

The Tangled Bank is now officially out; I’m getting word back from readers that it’s actually showing up from Amazon. If you’re curious about it, here are a couple ways to find out more.

1. I’ve set up pages on my web site where you can download the introduction, look at some of Carl Buell’s artwork for the book, read reviews, and get contact information if you’re a teacher interested in a desk copy.

2. The New York Academy of Sciences has published an excerpt in the new issue of their magazine. It’s about the evolution of the eye, and you can read it online here.

3. Discover has another excerpt, about coevolution, in their November issue. The print issue is out now, and it should be posted online some time soon.

Can Your Pet Catch & Spread Swine Flu? Yes, If Your Pet’s a Ferret | 80beats

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

cat-vet News that an Iowa cat has been diagnosed with swine flu has sparked a new round of concerns, as pet-owners worry both that their furry companions could get sick, and that their pets could pass the virus on to other humans. The 13-year-old, mixed-breed cat showed the symptoms of lethargy, sneezing and coughing typical to sick cats [ABC News]. The veterinarians who treated him say that several people in the cat’s home had been experiencing flu-like symptoms, and lab work confirmed that the feline had the H1N1 virus.

Happily, the cat is expected to make a full recovery. But both vets and public health officials are rushing to reassure the public that one sick cat probably does not indicate a coming crisis. While it’s possible that more cats will be diagnosed with the swine flu, vets point out that the virus was circulating for more than six months before the first cat case was discovered, indicating that the virus probably doesn’t jump from species to species very easily. Doctors also note that there’s very little chance that a cat will spread the virus to humans: Even when inter-species transmissions do occur, the H1N1 virus seems more likely to move from humans to animals, rather than the other way around [HealthDay News].

There have been no reported cases of dogs catching the virus, but there is one type of pet that is known to be vulnerable. Ferrets are generally susceptible to the seasonal flu, and the AP reported Wednesday that H1N1 infection has been confirmed in two ferrets, one in Nebraska and the other in Oregon. “Not only can they be infected with the flu but they are clearly able to transmit the flu back to people,” Treanor said [HealthDay News]. But the bottom line appears to be: Unless you’re a ferret-owner, you probably have nothing to worry about.

Image: flickr / theogeo

Makers of Universes | Cosmic Variance

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

It can’t be easy being the guy who has to introduce Albert Einstein. But it helps if you’re George Bernard Shaw.

You have to love YouTube, although this is only an excerpt from a somewhat longer speech. Most of the text is here.

Al Gore’s New Book: A Focus on Solutions | The Intersection

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

I’m quoted in USA Today this morning talking about Gore’s solutions book–Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, currently at # 21 on Amazon. As I note, it is very good that Gore is focusing on fixes, given that An Inconvenient Truth was faulted for not having enough focus in this area. However, there is always the problem of partisanship: Who listens to Al Gore? Democrats, that’s who. Republicans pretty much dismiss him out of hand–unfortunate, but it’s true. I am very glad Gore is out there raising as much consciousness as possible about the climate crisis; he’s a unique asset. But I am also sure we need very different emissaries to reach the denialists (if that’s even possible).

The Universe Has Us in Its Crosshairs | Bad Astronomy

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

Looking for something to do this weekend, and for the next month? Are you anywhere near New York City?

Then I am very pleased to let you know that a group of artists there have created an exhibit based on my book, Death from the Skies! The exhibit is hanging at the ABC No Rio site, and runs from now until November 25 (actually it started last week). The viewing times are Sundays 1:00 – 3:00pm and Wednesdays & Thursdays 4:00pm – 7:00pm.

This is very cool, and I am deeply honored they based their work on my book. I was contacted by artist Brian George about it some time ago. Just recently he sent me some snapshots, and I was totally blown away by this:

I recognized this poor sot right away, and if you’ve read the first few pages of the book you will too. He’s the first guy killed by the Universe, straight away in Chapter 1. But don’t fret too much about him: everyone dies in the book. Over and over again, even.

I love the shadows of the trees in that drawing. Read the book to find out why. <Mwuahahahaha!>

dfts_Kelly_Galaxies The artwork on display is eclectic and interesting, and if you’re into astronomy and mayhem you want to go! The artists include Michael Estabrook, Brian George, Jacob Hashimoto, HC Noel (who drew Mark, above), Kevin Pyle, Kelly Savage ("Galaxies" over there on the left), William Stamos, Es Muss Sein Quartet & B-Cat and C-Town.

There’s a Facebook group for the exhibit, too.

And as an aside, if you happen to be in NYC Friday November 6, why not pay my friend, the wonderful flame-haired chanteuse Marian Call, a visit at her east coast debut? Her voice and music are really good, and she sings about cool scifi stuff, and even has a song the title of which I suggested to her. She’s awesome.

Of course, if you’re not in NYC, but instead are in Florida, that’s OK, because then you can go to Carl Sagan Day on Saturday, November 7!

LRO sees a Moonslide | Bad Astronomy

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Danzig

The hi-res Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s camera captured a pretty cool image of a (what I’m guessing is an ancient) landslide on the Moon. Check this out:

[Click to embrobdingnangate.]

The slide is down the steep slope of a crater called Marius, located in Oceanus Procellarum, a vast smooth-surfaced area on the Moon (generally called "maria" — singular is "mare" — and easily visible to the naked eye). The crater itself is pretty old; the floor is covered with the same smooth surface as the mare around it, so it predates Oceanus Procellarum which we know is pretty frakkin’ old.

The slide is very interesting; what could have caused it? A moonquake, or a nearby impact? Either way, the ground shook, knocking loose rubble at the crater rim which then rolled downhill. And just to give you an idea of the scale here, the image is 510 meters across: you could walk that distance in a few minutes. The fingers of debris are only a few dozen meters across at most! The smallest objects you can see in this image are less than a meter across.

Features like this on the Moon yield a lot of information. Better, as the LROC page notes, this feature can be compared to similar ones on Mars, giving scientists insight into both worlds.

And? It’s just really cool. Landslides on the Moon! Look out below!

Select Page ::