Common Observer, uncommon observations

I have a new online project and venue that I have launched! Common Observer is a collaborative online venue of science, art, philosophy, and culture. The tagline is "Common Observer, uncommon observations." The idea is that we must reason as if we are the most common observer, but that doesn't preclude uncommon observations. An uncommon observation is something that challenges our human condition of common observation. A poem, a theorem, a dance, an equation, a painting, a story, a novel, or a theoretical truth may all be uncommon observations about the world we inhabit.

Yet fear not, I will still post on The Astronomist, in particular I will cross post any original scientific content I create. The reason for this shift of focus is at least two fold. First, it is hard to find time to generate original thoughtful content while finishing a PhD so Common Observer will have more aggregated content. Second, while so many people love astronomy, I feel a broader forum of wider interests will better grip reader's attention, as well as my own attention.

I hope that Common Observer can be a successful collaborative project. In order to realize that goal I am currently searching for culture, art, philosophy, or poetry contributors. So please check out the new project, share it with friends and colleagues, or contact me if you have inclinations to collaborate. Follow Common Observer on twitter, subscribe to the RSS, or just visit the site often. Thanks for the continued support. 

QR Codes

Science doesn't stop, but blogging occasionally does. Some good posts are on the way, but for today I have something fun: QR codes. You may recognize them as those little matrix barcodes that carry text, numbers, binary, or URLs that are starting to crop up in the real world in augmented reality or hardlink applications where objects in the physical world get linked to the digital world. If you didn't know already you can use your phone or camera to read these things no matter where you see them. They can carry quite a bit of information and because of fault tolerance and error handling in some cases portions of the QR code can be lost and the data still read. I made a few artistic renditions of a QR code that link to The Astronomist. I removed some of the bits from the center and replaced it with an A and I found I was still able to read them handily with the code scanner on my iPhone so I assume they aren't corrupt. Now I just need to make some stickers out of them or something so the digital and physical world will meet at The Astronomist.

The Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau

I have been on blog sabbatical for some time, but I am going to be back in full force in about two weeks blogging from a lake in southern Germany. I have been invited to Lindau Germany to cover the 60th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in about two weeks. You can follow what I have to say along with several other bloggers on the Lindau Blog and you can also submit an original and stimulating question you would like to ask a Nobel Laureate.

One of the goals of the Lindau conference is to facilitate dialogue between Nobel laureates and young scientists. The conference will consist of lectures by the Nobel laureates followed by panel discussions between the young scientists and laureates. There will be an exchange of ideas on basic research as well as applications in fields such as medicine, physics, chemistry and economics. It is great to see this atmosphere of exchange between the various generations and the encouragement to young scientists for the future.  Personally, I am very excited to hear the talks and have the opportunity to ask Nobel laureates questions. I could use some recommendations on good questions to ask a Nobel laureate. Some questions I have thought of

• What was an assumption you or your field had that has turned out to be completely wrong?
• As a young researcher, how can we deal with the reality of daily failures and obstacles?
• What kind of fundamental research could lead to unexpected applications in daily life?

So, what would you ask?

The Astronomist @ Field of Science

The Astronomist has moved to a new home at Field of Science. It is great to be here with a community of other diverse science blogs which you can browse at the top of the page. A few things have changed with the blog like the look and the URL, but all the changes are for the better. I would also like to take this chance to talk a little about The Astronomist.

Why?

The Astronomist is a blog about science, mostly astronomy, but also anything else that is interesting. I write this blog because I am deeply committed to staying curious. I estimate that 99.999% of the world makes their way in this world by thinking only of what happens on earth, but some of us are concerned with what happens above. What is matters though is that all (even those of you who say you don't) of us feel awe when looking up. Occasionally, when I explain what I do I am asked why would we study the sky above when we haven't even figured out everything on earth, but I think if you have to ask, then you aren't asking enough. Through this virtual venue I can share my thoughts about various curiosities and just as importantly I hope that I can receive feedback from other wise and curious folks. I would not be surprised, in fact I hope, that blog comments could be better than my original posts because collectively the community knows far more than I will ever know. I don't always write about what I know so the best part my blog post could begin where the blog post ends. Just stay curious.

Astronomist is not a word

There are economists, agronomists, physicists, biologists, and scientists, but where are the Astronomists? When I was a child I took a long time to start reading and was diagnosed with dyslexia. I think one of the difficulties I encountered was the inconsistencies of language. In languages you can't be certain without a priori knowledge whether the patterns you know will be valid for a specific case. For example when pluralizing certain animals you can not just add an 's' and be done with the matter; you can have one goose, but there is no such thing as Gooses there are Geese (that nomenclature isn't so unexpected actually). However, when your Geese are just generally around a large group is a flock, when they are in flight they become a skein, and when they waddle on the ground they become a gaggle. How is anyone supposed to know that without having been told that? I know a little of many languages, mostly just enough to get myself in trouble, because I can't predict the special cases of conjugation, spelling, or pronunciation. I think all of us who are learning a new language just use the general rule or pattern we observe and extrapolate to new cases. Thus those who are learning English may take science and make the new word scientists, but when they take astronomy and make astronomists they are punished for their clever deduction! Thus I propose that Astronomist is a good as word as any.

Blog Name

I am not certain that real+entropy is the right name for the blog. Sounds cool perhaps... But how about Entanglement Entropy? And it is even a real concept so you know it has to be good. My old favorite science and random blog Cosmic Variance just posted today about starting a blog and the importance of a good name. Some of their suggestions that I like include: Extremize The Action, Critical Phenomena, Smooth Tension, Ultra Deep Field, Outside the Light Cone,Primeval Atom, Left As An Exercise, and The Error Bar. For now I am changing to Entanglement Entropy.

Blog?

Should I write a blog? It doesn't seem like many people would read it. What would be its purpose? I made my first web page, (here) by teaching myself from the W3 schools website in order to learn html, xhtml, Java script, and W3C standards. So now I know how to make a page, but I found hosting and dynamic updating difficult so maybe blogger will make it easier to not just have a static page, but something dynamic and with content people would want to visit. The purpose of this blog would be to entertain and enlighten. Topics might include physics, astronomy, science, news coverage of science, computer science, politics, design, architecture, technology, philosophy, music, and just generally what I am up too.