Chris Lintott’s Universe

The first day turned out to be unusually easy; just one interview, with the project manager for the Phoenix mission. Phoenix is due for launch next year, and is designed to land further north than any successful mission to Mars has managed. The incentive is to dig down below the surface to reach the ice that Mars Global Surveyor results indicate is there. I did feel slightly overwhelmed at time by NASAspeak, a language dominated by TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms), but was glad to hear that Phoenix is supposed to refer to the mythical bird, rather than being a contribed acronym.

JPL itself is very different from what I expected. It’s set right up in the foothills of the mountains - all the better for testing rockets which, after all, was the primary purpose of the lab during the first couple of decades of its 70 year history - and blends into them remarkably well given the size of the buildings. The buildings are otherwise extremely unassuming; just about the only clue as to the real purpose of the lab is the large satellite dishes further up the hill…

The Sunday Times had an interesting and extremely thoughtful article about the difference between the current wave of science books and the past. I don’t agree with all of it; I think to lump Dawkins, Hawking and Steve Jones together is, to say the lease, a little over simplistic, but I do think they captured what we’re trying to do.

Wonder is not laden with scientistic attitude. It is open-minded and embraces uncertainty. Indeed, the greatest living science writer, EO Wilson, admitted, while contemplating the Amazonian rainforest, that some part of him resisted the scientific impulse to know and explain all. He wanted the wonder and mystery, as well as the knowledge. Wonder also illuminates everything, no matter how small.

We arrived in California yesterday evening following an extremely long and uneventuful flight. We even managed to rescue all of our luggage - eventually - which is always reassuring. We’re here to film a series of interviews, mainly for our Mars special which goes out early next year, and first up is a trip to somewhere I’ve always wanted to go: JPL.

I’ll be posting reports throughout the week, wireless access permitting.

Housekeeping: I am ignoring comments for now due to an influx of spam. Longer term solutions to follow.

Lots of posts coming up - I promise.

However, with Bang! now back in stock at Amazon we’ve had to reprint to keep up with demand. Sadly, there wasn’t time to print as many of the ‘flashy’ covers as we need before Christmas, so if you really want one of these, wait (or buy in a bookshop!). The contents (as reviewed in Sky at Night magazine) remain the same whichever edition you get.

See our announcement here.

We’ve been taken aback by the success of Bang!. However, the first reprint has now arrived and the book is back in stock at Amazon and hopefully in your nearby bookshop.

Apologies for the lack of posts recently - I’ve been dashing around before going off to a conference next week. The highlight of the week was interviewing Steve Squyers, the principle investigator on Spirit and Opportunity. We last talked just over a year ago, and it’s incredible to think that the rovers are still happily rolling around Mars having survived their second winter.

The interview will be broadcast as part of our Mars special in January, but for now you can listen to Steve’s lecture to the OU here.