Chris Lintott’s Universe

This worries me a little; the idea that creationism could gain any sort of foothold in the UK is disturbing. Luckily, the important quotation is at the bottom of the article, where

“A spokesperson for the DfES said: “Neither creationism nor intelligent design are taught as a subject in schools, and are not specified in the science curriculum. The national curriculum for science clearly sets down that pupils should be taught that the fossil record is evidence for evolution, and how variation and selection may lead to evolution or extinction.”

Following the fuss earlier in the year, it’s good to see that the government is holding firmly to this line. The important thing is to keep watching, and making sure that they stick to it. In the meantime, may I recommend the Panda’s Thumb for a virtual pint?

Back in the far off days between undergrad and PhD, I happened to be at Patrick’s while discussions were taking place about a book to be co-authored by PM and by Queen guitarist and astronomer, Brian May. Somehow, I got sucked into the project and was present at the fateful meeting at which hands were shaken and deals were agreed. The first thing Brian said after agreeing to join is was to warn us that he didn’t really have time for the project, and I certainly didn’t have time. Nonetheless, Bang! : The complete history of the Universe (my arguing for ‘a history of the Universe’ didn’t sway the sales team…) now exists, and I am extremely proud of the two copies that are currently nestling on my bookshelf.

The key difference between this and any other introduction to the subject that I know of is that we tell the story as it happened (and will happen) rather than as we have discovered it. So we have tried very hard to avoid sentences which begin ‘In XXX astronomers believed…’ and stuck to the story of the Universe’s evolution, from ‘In the Beginning’ to the very end. Publication date is officially next month, but keep an eye on our sparkling website in the meantime, or go to the website of Canopus Publishing for a preview.

One of my favourite stories out of all of those we’ve covered on the Sky at Night in the last three years was that of SuperWASP. WASP stands for the Wide Angle Planet Search, and the idea is to scan as much of the sky as possible, as quickly as possible, in order to catch the extremely faint blink of a planet passing in front of its parent star. There is no telescope – the two WASP installations use top of the range cameras and camera lenses (some of which, rumour has it, were obtained via ebay!). I reported on the story during my trip to the Canaries in 2004, and had almost given up hope of hearing of detections. The sheer amount of signal processing required to extract anything from the flood of data is immense, but this week brought the first two WASP planets, and I suspect there will be many, many more to come. An excellent result from a simple idea, brilliantly executed.

My only complaint? Why did they have to announce it less than a day after we’d filmed this months News Notes?

I’ve been talking a lot recently about the impact of seeing the Earth as a planet for the first time; perhaps the most enduring legacy of Apollo is the image that we all have of a round Earth hanging in space. Interestingly, it seems that this wasn’t something the astronauts had particularly thought about seeing (concentrating instead on what the Moon itself would look like) but it is something that appears in their accounts time and time again. For a later generation, Carl Sagan’s magnificent description of a ‘Pale Blue Dot’ as seen by Voyager will stick in the mind.

Well, we have another image. Cassini, now in orbit around Saturn, has just captured the first colour image of the Earth from the outer solar system to be taken for twenty years or so. It’s stunning to see our planet in perspective like this, isn’t it?

Oh, and go and vote for the incredible aurora picture in the BBC’s photographic competition, please.

This is the first post. Hopefully it will be visible to everyone, although why anyone would be here at this stage I do not know. More to follow

Update : Import of posts from trial blog earlier this year.