In the last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about ethics in physics and astronomy. While in astronomy we don’t have to navigate the perilous minefield of research on people or animals, proper scientific conduct is still considered to be an essential requirement for a career in astronomy. But what defines “proper scientific conduct”, or its counterpart, the dreaded “misconduct”, and who writes those definitions? Plagiarism is the one form of misconduct students are taught from undergraduate level to avoid at all cost. How far does the definition of plagiarism actually stretch, and why? And does that make sense? Moreover, what is the punishment, and who should it be administered by?While these issues are often presented in very black and white terms, once you dig below the surface they are really pretty murky. [Read more...]
Sci-fi pictures from Mars
Via the Bad Astronomer, some eery pictures from the surface of Mars that look straight out of a sci-fi flick. The images were taken by the HiRise camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Another brilliant recent addition to the HiRise image archive is this one: [Read more...]
Hubble brings exotic beauties to the IYA party
Remember when the folks at NASA gave us all the opportunity to vote for a target to observe with the Hubble Space Telescope? [Read more...]
Get your gamma-ray goggles on
As one of its contributiosn to the Around the World in 80 Telescopes webcast, part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy fiesta last weekend, NASA released a great set of movies made from data gathered by the Fermi gamma-ray observatory. It shows a view of the full sky at gamma-ray wavelengths taken between August and October last year, with gamma ray bursts popping up in quick flashes. Very nice!
New Year, New Financial Crisis
British astronomers have had a rough ride in recent years. Last year began with doom and gloom over the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)’s budget deficit that caused it to withdraw from the Gemini consortium. The series of events that ensued were covered in great detail on the web so I won’t delve back into the particulars – but it’s safe to say that the future of British astronomy did not look so bright. Still, everyone plodded along.
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