jump to navigation

Another accolade for CMB scientists May 30, 2010

Posted by sarah in: astronomy . 1 comment so far

In another snippet of news, the Shaw Foundation that administers the annual Shaw Prize – the $1 million “Nobel Prize of the East”, on Thursday announced that the 2010 prize for astronomy has been awarded to Charles Bennett of Johns Hopkins and Lyman Page and David Spergel of Princeton. The trio have received the award for “for their leadership of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) experiment, which has enabled precise determinations of the fundamental cosmological parameters, including the geometry, age and composition of the universe”.

Cosmic Microwave Background scientists have been real favourites on the prize circuit – take a look:

And quite right too – CMB studies of the last couple of decades have been massively influential in our understanding of the Big Bang, the earliest epochs of the Universe, and the origin of structure. I wonder if the Planck team will be just as successful?

Incidentally, nice to see that the 2010 Shaw Prize for mathematics was awarded to Belgian mathematician Jean Bourgain, who’s at Princeton. I don’t know him or his work, but as I haven’t seen it mentioned in any of the Belgian media I thought I’d flag it up here. Congrats!

Image: NASA / WMAP Science Team

3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Awards May 30, 2010

Posted by sarah in: science . 1 comment so far

The excellent multi-disciplinary 3 Quarks Daily blog has announced that following the success of last year’s prizes, it’s starting its second cycle of blogging awards. First up are the science prizes, judged by none other than Richard Dawkins. Other categories to be awarded later this year are politics, philosophy and arts & literature. All the info is on 3QD, here, and nominations can be made by just posting a link in the post’s comments section. The nominations will be closed at the end of the day in EDT on 31 May.

Do you have a favourite sciency blog post – your own or someone else’s? Go nominate it quickly!

Vote for your favourite Research Blogs March 8, 2010

Posted by sarah in: me, science . Add a comment

Following the Oscars news online reminded me that the voting for the Research Blogging Awards opened officially this week. Voting is only open to those registered with the site, but if you’re a blogger and you enjoy writing about peer-reviewed science, you should go sign up – immediately, if not sooner.

There are some great blogs up for awards and I will certainly cast my little vote in the categories where I have my favourites. This blog is a finalist in the category for Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, so if you like what you read here from time to time, consider voting for me. As well as $50 I’d probably get some kind of badge to put in my sidebar, and I totally want one of those. I think it would look really nice next to the Dopplr duck. Help me fill that gaping hole in my sidebar y’all.

See the list of finalists here and follow the link in the invitation email to exercise your democratic rights. If you need reminding of the research I’ve written about in the last few months, here are all my posts tagged “researchblogging”.

Awards season February 26, 2010

Posted by sarah in: me, science . Add a comment

Research Blogging Awards 2010 FinalistThe first few months of the year are traditionally awards season in the film industry, and in the blogging world it’s no different. I got back from a well-deserved and fabulous holiday a few days ago to discover I’m shortlisted for  a Research Blogging award in the category of Best Research Blog in Chemistry, Astronomy or Physics. Yay and thanks judges!

Well done also to all the other finalists and in particular also to Martin Robbins’ Lay Science blog, which is a contender for the Best Lay-Level Blog – I’ll take a teeny bit of credit for that too. Martin is also up for Best Blog Post, go check out the nominated post here.

All members of Research Blogging will be invited to vote for their favourites in early March and I certainly intend to cast votes for my favourite blogs. If you want to be able to vote and write about peer-reviewed research, go sign up! I’d definitely like to see some more astronomy blogs on the site.

The White House Hearts Astronomy October 9, 2009

Posted by sarah in: astronomy, politics . Add a comment

This week the White House was the venue for the most high-profile Star Party of the year. To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, the President played host to over a hundred school kids and amateur astronomers. He gave a lovely opening address about the importance of science in society, his desire to reinvigorate maths and science education in the US, and he encourages the youngsters present to let their sense fo wonder and passion drive them in their pursuit for discovery. The man can speak.

(more…)