Book 15 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Only slightly behind. My link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from there. I’ve been internet friends with … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 14 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! More or less on track. My link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from there. My reading … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Preparing to write the final section for the second edition of my Singular Optics textbook that happens to be on, you guessed it, optical skyrmions! I thought I would try writing a non-technical explanation first to straighten out all the … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 14 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Still keeping a decent pace. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 13 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Still keeping a decent pace.. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Okay, let’s look at a really cute physics demonstration that I found in a really unusual place and which has unexpected connections to optical physics! The demonstration in question is set up as follows: attach a string to a 1 … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 12 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! I’ve basically rallied and caught myself up. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you … Continue reading → | Continue reading
I’ve posted many times on this blog about the work of Ramsey Campbell, and he is not only my favorite horror author but one of my favorite authors of all time. In my opinion, his ability to build a sense … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 11 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Largely caught up at this point. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 10 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Catching up a bit now. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 9 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Still running a little behind but not catastrophically. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 8 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Still running a little behind but not catastrophically. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 7 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Running a little behind but should be able to make it up pretty easily. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Though people have studied and been fascinated by electricity and magnetism, including such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, we can really trace the beginning of modern electromagnetic theory to one specific experiment in 1785, in which the French physicist Charles-Augustin de … … | Continue reading
It so happens that the falling felines research that came out recently, and that I blogged about last week, has been getting a lot of news attention! A journalist at the New York Times contacted me for comments about the … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 6 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Running a little behind but should be able to make it up pretty easily. As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means … Continue reading → | Continue reading
So I’m now known as the falling cat physics guy, thanks to writing a popular science book on the history of scientists studying how cats land on their feet (“cat turning”) that you may or may not have heard of! … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 5 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! As usual, my link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account. My blogging is at the happy point where I occasionally get copies of books to … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 4 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Could only find this book available on Amazon this time. Been digging through my collection of unread books looking for something different to read and recently the book … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 3 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! Today, I can oddly only link to the audiobook on Bookshop.org, since it is an old book and largely out of print. I’ve been slowly reading the Berserker … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 2 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. One joy of being active on social media — in the midst … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Here’s another post based on the revisions I’m making for the second edition of my Singular Optics textbook! Caustics are a subject that I’ve sort of casually understood for ages but never well enough to explain it, but book work … Continue reading → | Continue reading
So I’ve written a lot about the physics of invisibility on this blog and have even written a popular science book on the subject, but many people may not know that I also still occasionally do some research on invisibility … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Just wanted to drop a little personal news and add it to my record of stuff: I was chosen to be a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer for 2026-2027! I had applied early last year and though I was chosen I … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 1 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. I seem to be on a bit of a haunted house kick … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 31 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year — I managed to squeeze one more in before the new year! My goal for 2026 will be 36 books, so off I go on a new quest starting tomorrow. … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Working on the second edition of my Singular Optics textbook and thought I would blog about some of the fun developments in the field that I’ve come across while doing the book research! Light has wave properties, and as a … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 30 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year — I MADE MY GOAL! Now I’ll probably read a couple of additional books by the end of the year to get ahead and prep for my 36 book … Continue reading → | Continue reading
It’s time to compile all my fake book titles from social media again! You can see compilation 1, compilation 2, compilation 3, compilation 4, compilation 5, compilation 6, compilation 7 and compilation 8 at the links. It’s been a while since I really indulged in this, largely d … | Continue reading
Another post from the archives while I work on new stuff! | Continue reading
Sharing another classic history of science post from the archives! This one is about the rather heated history of the illusion known as Pepper’s Ghost. | Continue reading
Another reblog from my large history of science archive, just for fun! | Continue reading
Thought I’d start reblogging some of my old physics posts that I enjoy, so here’s one from 2022 on why you always think your headlights are off when it’s raining at night! | Continue reading
One of the topics of the history of science that has continued to fascinate me is the discovery of the principle of conservation of energy. As I discussed in my three-part series “Booms, Blood, and Beer” (part 1, part 2, … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 29 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. Near the “official” end of my book goal for the year, well ahead … Continue reading → | Continue reading
This past Friday, I celebrated the Halloween season by going to a ghost story reading at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. I sat around a campfire with a bunch of other people with a glass of wine, listening to a staff … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 28 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. Not long ago, Titan comics sent me a review copy of a recent … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Every year since I’ve started this blog, I’ve published a few classic open access stories of horror for the Halloween season! In recent years, I’ve started to make a theme for each year. This year, the theme is “haunted houses,” … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 27 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. Chuck Tingle honestly has yet to disappoint in even the slightest. His latest … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Recently I’ve made a couple of appearances outside of my blog talking about science and I thought I would share them here! First, I collaborated with my artist friend Michele on a post talking about the optics of shimmering interference … Continue reading → | Continue reading
I’m now in my mid-50s and my parents are in their 80s and are starting to experience the age-related cognitive problems that most of us will eventually encounter if we live that long. My dad in particular has very poor … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 26 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. I have long had a huge fascination with the ancient Near East, fostered … Continue reading → | Continue reading
I’ve recently been trying to “relearn” thermodynamics, a subject that I haven’t really looked at, or had to look at, for years. I put “relearn” in quotes because I never really learned it well in the first place! One of … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 25 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. As folks are probably aware from this blog, I am a big … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 24 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. I’ve been online friends with Brandy Schillace for a number of years … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Book 23 for my 2025 goal of 30 books for the year! As is now default for me, my link to the book is through my bookshop dot org affiliate account. I haven’t read many comics in recent years, even though I was … Continue reading → | Continue reading
I’m pretty bad with anniversaries, so I’m glad that WordPress reminded me! Today marks 18 years of blogging at Skulls in the Stars. What started as a fleeting experiment became a pretty significant part of my life. 18 years… wow. … Continue reading → | Continue reading
Some time ago, I was browsing 150 year old popular science magazines as one does and I found an amusing editorial from 1879 in The Popular Science Monthly titled “Explanations that do not explain.” The unsigned editorial discussed a recent … Continue reading → | Continue reading