Bright flash on Australian mountain 19 Jun 2009 A bright flash has occurred near Gin Gin in Queensland, followed by a fire on the mountain. Authorities are not saying what it was, but the locals have come up with the most likely explanation: space junk, rubbish that has re-entered. About ten years ago I was driving my kids and wife back from central Victoria at about 3am, when the sky lit up like a very large lightning flash, on a cloudless night. And then falling fire in front of me, for all the world like melting metal, slowly faded. It was, by my estimation, about 20km in front and at about 3km high or so. Nothing on the news the next day, so I was possibly the only person who saw it. In town it would have looked like a plane light or something. My family were, of course, asleep. But I am still convinced that it was a re-entering booster or something, that exploded after being heated to the right temperature on re-entry. Great fun. General Science
General Science Thoughts on the periodic table 4 Feb 2010 Eric Scerri has written the definitive history of Mendele’ev’s periodic table and how it came to be formulated. He also has a paper in which he proposes a new formulation, based on historical considerations of what it was that Mendele’ev was trying to do, and on more theoretical considerations of… Read More
Administrative More of me in Spanish, and information again 4 Aug 200818 Sep 2017 A blog post by the incredibly multilingual John Wilkins (who knew he spoke French, Portuguese and Spanish? OK, it’s by proxy, but it’s nearly as good as actually speaking it) is now available in Spanish. Gee but he looks like he knows whereof he speaks… Thanks to Eduardo Zugasti for… Read More
General Science Antivaxer story on the way 29 Apr 2009 Although Sunday Night did a very good story on the antivaccination campaign’s cost in lives, it now looks like they will do a follow up that takes the antivaxxer line, if the appearance in the ads of Australia’s least accurate journalist Mike Munro is any guide. Munro is a gutter… Read More
About four years ago in Pennsylvania, I witnessed a gigantic green fireball that lit up the entire sky for about five seconds. It was the most incredible astronomical thing I’ve ever seen, but not reported anywhere on the news that I could find. Probably just a meteor, but you never know. Where I am right now, in the US West at 10,000 ft, it’s hard to look up at the night sky without seeing a meteor. And at that altitude on a clear moonless night, the milky way is a spectacular, living, glowing thing.
I saw something similar to what jeff describes (green and all) camping on the beach with some friends along the south pacific coast of Mexico, about 18 years ago. We were drinking by the fire. We all stood up and cheer as it disintegrated. It was great.