grazgul: Just your daily reminder that this exists. Being a former and current Longhorn, I really enjoyed this issue of The Alcalde (our alumni magazine). Because this guy is my guy. But when you dig a little deeper into Dr. Tyson’s time in Austin, a frustratingly sad story emerges. Not only was Neil looked down upon by many “in charge” (but not all) for his desire to popularize science early on and live a full life (I feel him on that one), but he was stopped by campus police fairly often on his way to the physics building, across the street from where I work. How many times was he stopped going to the gym? Zero. You can probably guess why. This may be in liberal, hippy Austin, but it was still Texas in the early 80’s. I mean, on the first day, they told him they needed to play on the faculty basketball team. I know it’s not indicative of my university as a whole, but as much as we’d like to think that’s history, it still happens today, for reasons more than color. Perhaps less than years past, but until it’s never, it’s too often. I don’t want to miss the next Dr. Tyson because we judge them at the door and don’t let them be the full person they are. Science is an open club, no membership rules, no dress code, and no limits!
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grazgul:

Just your daily reminder that this exists.

Being a former and current Longhorn, I really enjoyed this issue of The Alcalde (our alumni magazine). Because this guy is my guy. But when you dig a little deeper into Dr. Tyson’s time in Austin, a frustratingly sad story emerges.

Not only was Neil looked down upon by many “in charge” (but not all) for his desire to popularize science early on and live a full life (I feel him on that one), but he was stopped by campus police fairly often on his way to the physics building, across the street from where I work. How many times was he stopped going to the gym? Zero. You can probably guess why. This may be in liberal, hippy Austin, but it was still Texas in the early 80’s. I mean, on the first day, they told him they needed to play on the faculty basketball team.

I know it’s not indicative of my university as a whole, but as much as we’d like to think that’s history, it still happens today, for reasons more than color. Perhaps less than years past, but until it’s never, it’s too often.

I don’t want to miss the next Dr. Tyson because we judge them at the door and don’t let them be the full person they are. Science is an open club, no membership rules, no dress code, and no limits!

(via crownedrose)

Source: unfollowingjesus.com

Painting a White Dwarf on Earth

UT-Austin Astronomer Inspires Art With Stellar Physics

In Albuquerque, NM, on the grounds of Sandia National Laboratories, there exists a machine that can release more energy than all the world’s power plants can create six times over. It’s called the Z Machine, and scientists are trying to create a white dwarf inside of it. In Austin, TX, it’s image inspired an artist.

The Z Machine can only create that immense amount of energy for a few nanoseconds at a time, but when it does, seismic waves ripple in circles through the desert and electrical arcs shoot from every surface in the room. Inside, threads of tungsten are vaporized into a plasma and an immense magnetic field is created. This incredibly dense, hot plasma can reach peak temperatures of 6.6 billion˚F, nearly as hot as the center of our Sun. Hydrogen atoms can fuse to deuterium, and x-rays beam from within.

That plasma is what is found in white dwarf stars across the universe. By understanding how it is created and how it cools, Professor Don Winget hopes to learn more about the age and evolution of our universe. 

Leah Flippen is a studio art major who took Dr. Winget’s astronomy class. When she saw the Z Machine and its storm of stellar lightning, she knew she had to paint it. For her, it became a way to engage with the process of creation and immersing herself in science. For WInget, the Z Machine turns astronomy from an observational science to an experimental one. A superb cross-contamination of ideas, from plasma to paints.

Here on Earth, for nanoseconds at a time, we are recreating dwarf stars. What else can we create with the inspiration this science provides us?

(This video was produced by Daniel Oppenheimer and UT’s College of Natural Sciences. For more, check out the accompanying article.)