Dan Falk

Dan Falk

@danfalk.bsky.social

Hi! I write about #science for Smithsonian, Discover, Quanta, Nautilus, Undark, National Geographic, CBC Radio, & many other outlets. Books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time. Co-host of BookLab podcast. 🔭🪐⭐️⚛️

5.2K followers1.5K following1.9K posts

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Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

Solar eclipse -- my four best photos, viewing from near Port de Soller, Mallorca. (There were clouds, especially during totality; what can y'do...) #solareclipse #photography #mallorca

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

We’ve talked about this before, but: I’m always a little surprised to see how early touch-tone phones appeared. (This movie is from 1968. I don’t remember when we got ‘em in our house, in Halifax, but sometime in the 80s.)

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Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

3/4 And when we talk about what we "should" do, and steps that society "ought" to take, aren't we admitting that we indeed have some freedom over our destinies? Taking into account all the things that Carroll and Caruso agree on, I think... (cont’d)

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

2/4 I think I have to side with Sean Carroll: Yes, absolutely, our prison system needs reform; yes, we need to be conscious of mitigating circumstances when we assign blame, etc etc -- but is it really "mitigating circumstances all the way down"? (Is nobody ever responsible for anything?) (cont’d)

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

Columbo — first of two pilot episodes (1968) — much younger than you normally picture him, right? (Honestly I’d forgotten that it started *that* long ago!)

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

Just a roundup of pix of the Elizabeth Line 🚊 in London, from Sept / Oct. As mentioned, it whips across central London in under 15 minutes. (A helicopter 🚁 could do it in two minutes, but neither you nor I have a helicopter, so here we are… 🙃 ) #london #trains #publictransport

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

The fun part: Lookin’ at old stuff in the archives of the Royal Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, Cambridge University Library, and St. John’s College Library. :) The less fun part: going through a zillion iPhone images and rotating them 90, 180, or 270 degrees, as needed. ➡️⬇️⬅️⬆️

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

#physics BlueSky: Is there a scenario in which you’d use the term Hz^-1? Because reciprocal Hertz would just be seconds, right? So wouldn’t you just express the thing in seconds?

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

The moon, earlier this evening. (iPhone aimed into eyepiece of StarMax 90 [the telescope is not designed for astrophotography, so it’s always a bit of a struggle].) Crater Copernicus is at bottom centre. #moon #themoon

Dan Falk reposted

Colin Schultz
@colinschultz.bsky.social

🍁 Attention freelance journalists 🍁 Canada's @nationalobserver.com is looking for your pitches. We have a healthy freelance budget (think potential travel), and are looking to fund interesting, ambitious reporting that dives deep into Canada's climate, energy, and politics.

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

😥😡

Prof. Sam Lawler@sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

I was accused of being sensationalist or exaggerating when our 2022 research paper predicted one in 15 visible points in the sky would be a moving satellite. I think maybe we were actually too conservative. I hate this so very very much.

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

1/2 There’s a long, long list of things to dislike about the 1992 thriller Basic Instinct — and here’s another one: The scene where Nick (Michael Douglas) confronts the psychiatrist (Jeanne Tripplehorn) in the hallway is utterly contrived. (cont’d)

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

2/2 In any halfway realistic universe, upon seeing detective Nick with his gun aimed at her, she would show her hands so that Nick could see that she’s unarmed. Instead, because the writers wrote it this way and for no other reason, she keeps her hands in her pockets and Nick shoots her. 😐

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

3/2 Even the “reveal” where we find she’s been clutching a Bart Simpson keychain doesn’t make up for this absurdity.

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

Hmm. Any idea why Radio Garden (which is awesome) doesn’t seem to offer BBC Radio 4? The offerings typically look like this:

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

Many pubs in Britain are struggling. 🙁 These are two defunct pubs that I saw from the window of the #65 bus in Ealing, earlier today:

Dan Falk reposted

Philip Ball
@philipcball.bsky.social

"Whatever we call it, Bashford says, the eugenicists of a century ago “would undoubtedly be delighted at contemporary possibilities for reproductive selections.”" Good to see @danfalk.bsky.social digging into the ugly return of eugenic thinking. nautil.us/the-return-o...

nautil.usThe Return of a Discredited PseudoscienceThe Return of a Discredited Pseudoscience: Eugenics is rearing its ugly head again in today’s crucible of politics and culture
Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

I spent a lot of time at this puddle haha. Anyway, here’s a church, a reflection of a church, and a depiction of a church on a bus: #cambridge #england #reflections

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

In my imagination, this translates as “In your face, Welwyn Garden City!” (which is about a dozen km down the road):

Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social

Neutrino research scores (another) Nobel! #physics #science

Nobel Prize@nobelprize.org

BREAKING NEWS The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2026 #NobelPrize in Physics to Francis Halzen “for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.”