Victor Hugo is best known for his novels Les MIserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Though it’s probably more accurate to say that he is best known for going off on extremely long tangents in said novels. Such as the infamous twenty six pages about the Paris sewer system. Though really, the eighteen chapters […]
astronomy
Juvenile Facts about Uranus
The planets that were known in ancient times were, naturally enough, named after the Roman gods. When more advanced instruments let us discover even more planets, it only made sense to continue that theme. But the choice of the god of the sky has led to some irresistible jokes. So today we’re looking at some […]
Literal Telescope Names: What’s On the Tin
They say there are two gateway drugs to science: dinosaurs and space. So it’s no wonder the names for astronomy related projects tend to be quite… romantic. We named what we saw in the sky after old gods, and we kept that theme going when we travelled to them. Often space projects are named for […]
Wagers in Science: Physicists Do Play Dice
There are lots of reasons to undertake a scientific investigation. Sometimes it’s pure and simple curiosity. Sometimes it’s a directed effort to solve a specific problem. Often it’s pure curiosity that gets dressed up as a directed effort while writing a grant application. Sometimes it’s trying to solve one specific problem and accidentally solving another. […]