About
I teach an introductory course in big bang cosmology at Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland and this weblog will be mainly concerned with the universe and its puzzles (see Categories)…with occasional pieces on science and society, climate science, surfing, skiing and whatnot
Cormac O’Rafferty
ANTIMATTER: an exotic form of matter in which the electric charge of each particle is the opposite of that in normal matter. Question is, why is our universe made up almost entirely of matter?
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About
I teach an introductory course in big bang cosmology at Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland and this weblog will be mainly concerned with the universe and its puzzles (see Categories)…with occasional pieces on science and society, climate science, surfing, skiing and whatnot
Cormac O’Rafferty
ANTIMATTER: an exotic form of matter in which the electric charge of each particle is the opposite of that in normal matter. Question is, why is our universe made up almost entirely of matter?
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Recent
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- Astronomy and cosmology at Birr Castle
- The Royal College of Surgeons and the Institute of Physics
- The Irish Times and the God particle
- Neutrino lecture at University College Cork
- The Science Delusion
- Sun, snow and clear skies in Hinterglemm
- A tribute to Stephen Hawking
- A tour of Irish universities
- Peter Watkins and Z bosons at Trinity College Dublin
- ‘Verdict out on relativity questioning experiment’
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Links
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Archives
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If this is working correctly, you should get this comment and have the option to add it to the blog, or discard it.
Is it working?
Hi,
Just testing to see if this works.
Alice
Yep, active at last!
I saw that you discussed my distant cousin, Venetia Phair (namer of Pluto) briefly. Her grandfather was Falconer Madan (Librarian of the Bodleian), whose brother was Henry George Madan (Science Master at Eton), who was the namer of Deimos & Phobos – the moons of Mars, of course. Given your connection with Waterford, I thought you might be interested to know that they descended from the Madan family of Waterford (as am I).
very interesting read!!
Hey Rachel, good to hear from ya!
hey cormac, fascinating stuff, but hopefully you’ll take a rest from explaining the universe and hit those slopes with us again! ;-)
Hey Frederik, great to hear from ya. I certainly hope to go skiing this year. How about one of the week-long FISC trips?
Are you on facebook?
Hi Cormac,
I met you at your talk in Trinity College on Thursday evening but unfortunately didn’t have much time for a decent chat. The first thing I’d like to say is that I thought your talk was excellent – beautifully presented slides and a wonderfully clear and enthusiastic talk. I had been at a maths talk the previous evening with several of the same people and, although they found that talk very impressive, many of them really hadn’t a clue what was going on. Afterwards the general consensus was that it was a bit like a television spectacular – all show but unintelligible content. On the other hand, the word about town after your talk was very positive. Not just nice clear slides but an enthusiastic speaker who presented his case concisely and in a logical order. It certainly went down well. As you said in your blog, it’s a pity there weren’t more people there.
Did you have to travel back to Waterford that evening? I hope not, but then for someone of your energy it wouldn’t surprise me.
I do hope I get to meet you again soon and, more importantly, that I am privileged to hear another of your fine lectures.
With best wishes,
Robert Kerr.
** Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. **
Great topics – I look forward to reading and participating in the ongoing discussion.
Thanks Samiam – enjoying your blog too
Hi Cormac,
It was a surprise to see your name turning up on Peter Woit’s blog like a bad penny :-)
I’m back living in Århus again these days – this time as an IT developer at the University Library. What have you been up to in the last decade or so? Do you ever visit Denmark or have any contact with the crowd we used to hang about with back then – at the ISC and the like?
Are _you_ on facebook?
cheers,
Colin
Hey Colin, long time no hear!
No I’ve never been back, except one week shortly afterwards – you lucky lucky thing. I would have happily stayed in Denmark or Germany, it’s becoming more and more of a problem. Ireland drives me nuts sometimes…
Yes I’m on FB, be delighted to hook up with any of the old crowd. Paul moved to Ireland, but I lost track of him…
Is the ISC still going? I think that was the apex of my miserable little social life…
From your website…
“There were several prominent references to corporate greed, to unsustainable energy consumption and to America’s reduced standing in international affairs. He sounded like he meant it. It will be interesting to see whether an intelligent man who is clearly well-motivated will be able to stand up to the vested interests of ideologues and big business…”
Before you are quick to criticize big business,you should remember that it is big business that allows you to be able to spend your life cloistered away from the real world!
Real world? here speaks a man who has clearly never taught.
It is also Big Business that practically crashed our entire financial system.
Hi Cormac, great blog! Looking forward to working my way through it over the next few weeks :) Maybe I’ll see you next year – if you can convince them to run Phys/Comp again!
Enda.
Hey Enda, you can find the cosmology posts by using the category section.
Re next year, you never know – there has still been no final decision..
Our website Science.org is a informational databases and online news publication for anything and everything related to science and technology. We recently ran a poll asking our website users regarding what online informational resources they use to keep up to date or even to simply find great information. It seems many of our users have labeled your blog as an excellent source of Space information. We have reviewed your blog and must say, we absolutely love the information you have made available to the public and would love to make your blog a part of our top science blogs. After browsing your blog, our research team has decided to award you a Top science Blogs award banner.
Many thanks William, I have only just found this comment today.You’re welcome to display the blog anytime!
Hi, Cormac.
In response to your post on my blog, I know that Mrs. Hubble once drove Einstein to an appointment when he was visiting California, whereupon he told her that “your husband’s work is beautiful–and he has a beautiful spirit.” But I’m not sure what Frau Einstein told Grace. Do tell….
Best, Marcia
There is an old story that when Mrs Hubble said “My husband studies the universe through this telescope” to Frau Einstein during her visit to Mount Wilson, Frau Einstein primly responded “Oh really? My husband does that on the back of an old envelope!”
Thanks for the reminder. How could I forget that? I once used it in a story I did on Einstein for National Geographic! It’s hard to track down whether it’s based on a real incident or merely apocryphal. But it’s a fun quote nonetheless.
Marcia
Cormac,Great site and blog. Thanks. Can I ask, do you know of any irish site where I could submit a question (kind of like NASA’s “Ask an Astrophysicist”)? I’m sure my question is a relative simple (basically, what evidence is there for universal expansion, such that if I could collect the same measure for the planets of the solar system, it would demonstrate rotation rather that expansion), but I have not been able to find an answer online and would prefer to ‘ask an Irish expert’ rather than a US expert! (I’m not being xenophobic, but would like to support an Irish based service – if one exists.)
Noel.
I turn up this article from google,it’s extraordinarily useful against me,I upright rack up these infomation.I from subscribe the newsletter,do these articles entertain copyright limit? can I brief them in my blog?
Hi Noel, I don’t think there is such a website that is Irish-run.
Re the expansion of the universe, it’s important to realise that it’s not universal – you and I are not expanding, and neither is our solar system. Even our nearest galaxy is approaching us, not receding, all because gravity dominates on these scales).
However, measurements of the speeds of the most distant galaxies all suggest that, on the largest scales, the universe is expanding…and the expansion is accelerating!
Thanks Cormac.
Hello,
I’m the Environment editor at Before It’s News. Our site is a People Powered news platform with over 1,000,000 visits a month and growing fast.
We would be honored if we could republish your blog RSS feed in our Environment category. I’ve really enjoyed what I read on Antimatter today and I believe our readers need to read what your blog has to say.
Syndicating to Before It’s News is a terrific way spread the word and grow your audience. Many other organizations are using Before It’s News to do just that. We can have your feed up and running in 24 hours. I just need you to reply with your permission to do so. Please include the full name and email of the person who will be attached to the account, and let me know the name you want on the account (most people have their name or their blog name).
You can also have any text and/or links you wish appended to the end or prepended to the beginning of each of your posts on Before It’s News. Just email me the text and links that you want at the beginning and/or ending of each post. If you know html you can send me that. If not, just send me the text and a link to your site. It should be around 200 characters or less (not including links).
You can, if you like, create a custom feed for Before It’s News that includes multiple links back to your blog or web site. We only require that RSS feeds include full stories, not partial stories. We don’t censor or edit work.
All the best,
Chris Holehouse
Editor, Before It’s News
http://www.beforeitsnews.com
Anytime Chris, thanks for asking. I’ll leave details on your site
Hi Cormac,
Sounds great. Drop me an email with the info listed above and we’ll get you up on the site right away.
Take care,
Chris Holehouse
Editor, Before It’s News
http://www.beforeitsnews.com
chris.h@beforeitsnews.com
Hello,
I have a website for electric circuits simulation, its based on Flash 10, I will be glad if you just go and see it:
http://www.dcaclab.com/en/lab
Also, you can submit lessons and save new circuits
I will be glad to hear from you!
Would you be interested to write about my lab ? it has Ohmmeter, Voltmeter, and Amper meter as well withe realistic sticks :)
Regards
Hi Cormac,
You taught me first year physics last year in WIT, I came across this earlier and thought you might like it. You were a stickler for the orders of magnitude!
http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/
Regards,
Mark.
Thanks Mark, it’s great
I applaud you on an excellent blog. I find your articles to be useful resources for my high school age children. I wish you continued success in your endeavor.
would you mind e-mailing re a post of yours ?, i will fill you in , Kind Regards Neill