Bang! Goes the Universe

A 45-minutes discussion with the director of the Carnegie Observatories about his journey as an astronomy, the state of research, new technologies and the development of the Giant Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas, Chile. John is renowned for his research on dark matter in galaxy groups. As observatory director he has spearheaded outreach programs for astronomy lovers and aspiring astronomers young and old. Check the links below for a video version of this episode and links to the GMT and Carnegie websites. Hope you enjoy the conversation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQJrlHrDP1M&t=5s

https://giantmagellan.org/

https://carnegiescience.edu/

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Alan Friedman is an award winning amateur solar photographer whose work and techniques have been the subject of lectures, articles and interviews.  He has appeared on NBC's Today Show and offered a TEDx Talk on solar photography.  The impending solar eclipse convinced me that this would be an ideal time to talk with Alan about solar astronomy and photography. We had an in-depth, informative and lively discussion on the subject. The interview will also appear on my YouTube page later this week. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the chat.

Alan's website:
https://avertedimagination.squarespace.com/

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A quick review of some of the names and events we discussed in season 1 and a short preview of what's coming up in season 2 of the show. It's been a hoot so far! Hope you've enjoyed it. Season 2 is coming soon!

Don't forget to check out my website for details on upcoming events or scroll through the Bang! blog page for more information on the people and developments we discussed in season 1.

https://www.ronvoller.com/

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Daniel Lewis is the Dibner Senior Curator for the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, California. A native of Hawaii, he's an environmental historian and author whose latest book, Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future, is due to be released in March of 2024. The library has connections with Caltech and University of Southern California and houses some of the world's foremost collections of manuscripts and other ephemera, including a large collection dedicated to science and astronomy in particular. In this 45-minute interview Dan and I discuss the library, the nature of research and some of the key aspects of research writing, in general. 

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One of the most brilliant men of science in the ancient world, Eratosthenes was best known as a scholar and librarian in his day, But he made his greatest contribution to science in the realms of geometry and astronomy fueled by his curiosity, ingenuity and reason. From his home in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, he used a chance reading from a book at the library of Alexandria to devise a method of determining the shape and size of the earth. Not stopping there, he later determined the size and distance to the moon with fair accuracy and even attempted the same of the sun.

For more information on each episode visit my website:
https://www.ronvoller.com/

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This Ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician built upon the suppositions of his predecessor creating a heliocentric model of the universe with the earth, moon and planets orbiting the Sun during the 3rd century BCE. Using an observation from Anaxagoras about the cause of eclipses, some geometry and some clever thinking, he devised a method of determining the size of the sun and moon and even took a stab at understanding their distances to the earth. His work would be built on further by Eratosthenes a century later. 

For more information about each episode go to my website:
https://www.ronvoller.com/

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In this episode we discuss a pair of ancient Greek philosophers whose relationship was akin to that of Socrates and Plato, but whose insights on the microcosmic nature of nature was so prescient that it would ultimately be passed over for hundreds of years. Due to a lack of surviving work from Leucippus the episode is focused largely on Democritus who appears to have exceeded his mentor in both scope and discipline. 

For more information on the episodes in this series, visit my website:

https://www.ronvoller.com/

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Philolaus was a unique figure in the era of Greek metaphysics who bridged the gap between the Milesians, the Presocratics and the Pythagoreans to form a theory of universal origins that included the first suggestion that Earth was not at its center. Although his theory was not widely accepted in his day, he would influence astronomers and philosophers from Aristarchus to Copernicus.

For more information on the episodes in this series, visit my website:
https://www.ronvoller.com/

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Anaxagoras was a maverick who lived in Ancient Greece in the 5th century BCE. He was schooled in the Milesian and Eleatic philosophical traditions and was especially interested in celestial mechanics. Chiefly, solar and lunar eclipses. His answers to Parmenides' thoughts on reality and the Milesian forms of arche as well as his insights on the causes of eclipses were prescient and in many ways correct. His suggestion that the Sun and Moon weren't gods got Anaxagoras into hot water with the establishment in Athens and narrowly escaped personal disaster. Find out more about his story in this 20 minute episode.

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https://www.ronvoller.com/bang

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Deborah Shapley had a distinguished 30-year career as a journalist, serving as a reporter for the weekly journal, Science, and as the Washington Bureau Chief for Nature. She is the author of four books, the best known of which is Promise and Power: the Life and Times of Robert McNamara, published on Little Brown in 1993. She is the granddaughter of Harlow and Martha Shapley and is the writer, editor and publisher of the online blog Harlow Shapley Project. 

I found Deborah’s recent post about her grandmother entitled, Martha Shapley, astronomer, fascinating. Martha was a very able mathematician who was instrumental in her husband’s early work on galactic structure and also published papers on her own.  But her career was sidelined by the pressures of having five children and supporting her husband’s role as Director of the Harvard Observatory. Martha Shapley’s work and the legacy of women astronomers is the topic of this episode of The Interviews. 

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