Window on the Universe

As a young astronomer growing up in Manchester, there wasn’t much to see. The omnipresent cumulus clouds and the glow of the sodium lamps reduced the night sky to a puce blanket of damp. If I was lucky, I saw the Moon, and on such rare occasions I looked up and stood still, transfixed by…

Einstein @ the IOP

I’m currently showing the “Einstein: Man of the Century” exhibition at the Institute of Physics in London. Drawing extensively from the Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the display provides a unique and fascinating insight into the life and times of one of the world’s most iconic scientists. If you can’t get to…

Bridging the Gap

Behold the wonderful Ivory Tower: the metaphysical, secluded space to which all scholars have a key. For generations, scientists have huddled within its glittering walls, pursuing their esoteric academic research in splendid isolation from the real world. Inside the Tower, cloistered academics divorced themselves from the general public. They gathered into like-minded groups, and established…

Einstein, the Big Bang, and Beyond

So much stuff is happening. Too much really, but hey, it’s all good. The Einstein project is in stasis at the moment, while we wait for the funding to be confirmed, but once that happens, hang onto your hats, because it’s going on tour. In the mean time, I will be guiding school groups around the Big Bang exhibition…

Einstein on tour!

It’s been a while since I wrote anything, but then, I’ve been busy in the background sorting things out… We’ve finally got confirmation: I’ll be touring the country this year with the Einstein: Man of the Century exhibition, and presenting the Einstein’s Legacy lecture. It’s still early days, but so far, the programme stands as…

The Goose is Cooked

It seems the Earth is safe – at least for now! The much feted Large Hadron Collider is going to be out of action until next summer. Back in September, during the final stage of testing, a faulty electrical connection within the collider short-circuited. This, in turn, resulted in the release of a tonne of liquid helium – a hugely…

Inspiring stuff…

Jewish holidays are like buses – you wait a year, then three of them come along at once! Thankfully, they’ve all passed now, so I have time to pick up the blog again. I’ve just returned from Manchester, where I presented Einstein’s Legacy to the kids at King David High School, and later at their…

Bang – A Short Story

With all the media excitement surrounding the LHC, I thought it would be interesting to have a different take on the subject. “Anything?” “No, not yet.” It was 3am. They had been up all night, and it hadn’t happened yet. But they would be ready when it did. Thirty-five hours a day, the telescope orbited,…