Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Nominations: The Universe Today Top 10 Scientific Endeavours of 2008

2008 has been a landmark year for space science and physics endeavour. We’ve peered deep into the cosmos and fitted new pieces into some of the most intriguing universal puzzles. We’ve explored other planets with technology we wouldn’t have recognised a decade ago. We’ve assembled some of the most complex experiments to test theories of the very small and the very big. 2008 has built strong foundations for the future of the exploration of the Universe in so many ways…

This week, Time Magazine published the top 10 “Scientific Discoveries” of 2008. Technically, as many readers pointed out, a few of the entries are not “discoveries”, they are “achievements”. Although this might have been the case, space exploration and physics dominated, with the #1 slot going to the LHC and #2 slot going to the Phoenix Mars Lander (#4 and #6 went to the Chinese spacewalk and exoplanets respectively). After reading the superb suggestion put forward by Astrofiend (thanks!), it was the push I needed to want to create a Universe Today version of a “Top 10” for 2008 (I’d love to do a top 20, but I have to find some time for Christmas shopping).

This top ten will focus on the last 12 months of Universe Today articles, so take a journey through the year’s events in space science and physics to find your favourite scientific endeavour of 2008. If you can’t find the article, just leave the name of the specific endeavour and we’ll do the rest. Please leave all nominations in the comments box below…

You have one week to get your nominations in (so your deadline is December 19th), and I’ll compile the list of winners hopefully in time for Christmas. The nominations will be considered not only according to popularity, but also chosen by your unbiased Universe Today team…

So, get nominating! You have 7 days…

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Listen to Astroengine Live on WPRT Radio, Today

In an effort to bring the space news efforts from the Internet to the radio, I have my own little radio show every Wednesday!

I’ve been a regular guest on Paranormal Radio with Captain Jack (his awesome show will start immediately after mine, so stay tuned) for a few months now and it looks like they enjoy what I have to say and gave me this two hour slot each week!

I’m really excited about the possibilities this opens up as it is a great way to promote not only articles on the Universe Today and my space science blog Astroengine.com, but the whole space blogosphere. Key to this will be a regular slot for the Carnival of Space where a superb collection space news can be found on the finest space blogs. So, I hope to give the CoS good coverage each week, starting with the 80th week of the Carnival (I’m looking at you Ethan!)…

Keep up to date with the Astroengine Live schedule and how to listen in »

Astroengine Live actually started last week, but due to technical teething problems I was unable to archive the episode. If you did listen in, you would have heard me getting all excited about the possibilities for the International Space Station and the future of manned space flight, but I’ll be sure to give a quick run-down of last week’s show today.

I’m still trying to find my way with doing a live show and as the set-up is pretty basic at the moment (I can’t interview guests or have phone-ins), but this will change in the not-so-distant future.

So, if you fancy listening in today, the show starts at 4pm PST (7pm EST/midnight GMT).

To Listen Live:

Use your standard streaming audio player »
Or visit WPRT Radio for more information »

Contact Me:

Send any emails about any space/science related news to: [email protected] and I’ll try to give it a mention!

Note: I also have my own theme tune! It’s based on Crystal Method’s “High Roller” that rocked anyway, but it’s now the foundation of Astroengine Live! So if anything, tune into the first 5 minutes to hear what the excellent WPRT team have created for me!

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Giveaway: When We Left Earth DVD

When We Left Earth

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I’m doing a giveaway this week, and it’s really simple. I’ve got 2 copies of the new Discovery Channel Documentary DVD, When We Left Earth – The NASA Missions (4-Disc Set in Limited Edition Tin). And I’m giving them away. To participate, just send an email to [email protected] with the subject line: When We Left Earth Giveaway. Your time to submit an email ends on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 11:00 am Pacific Time.

[giveaway]

Then I’ll pick two emails out of the list at random, get your physical addresses and mail out the 2 copies of the DVD set. Then I’ll delete the list of emails – this isn’t getting collected for anything.

So, if you want to participate, take a second, send me an email and I’ll add you to the draw.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Universe Today is Banned from Digg

I’ve been getting emails from a few users over the last week wondering why I’ve been banned from Digg. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but sure enough, if you try and submit a Universe Today story to Digg, you get the error:

This domain has been consistently flagged as violating the Digg Terms of Service and cannot be submitted at this time. Please refer to our Terms of Service (digg.com/tos) for more information.


I found this unusual, and attempted to contact the admin folks who run Digg, trying to find out what happened and see how I can fix the problem, and I got a canned response.

Thanks for taking the time to contact us at Digg.com regarding your website.

As you know, Digg is a community-driven website – our community has consistently reported the domain to which you refer.

Because unblocking your domain would not be in line with the best interests of the larger Digg community, we will not reverse this decision.

For more information, please see http://digg.com/faq and http://digg.com/tos

Thank you,

—Digg Support


So there you go. Apparently I’m not allowed to be in Digg. It wasn’t from me spamming links to Digg, I usually just let the community find the stories and submit them, so I have no idea what happened. The last story I submitted was back in July.

Anyway, I’ve removed the links to Digg from Universe Today since they don’t really serve a purpose anymore. Also, a couple of powerusers at Digg who tried to submit stories let me know that people are moving over to Mixx.com. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

AAS Meeting in St. Louis, June 1-5

It’s going be another busy week of space news. That’s because thousands of professional astronomers have descended into St. Louis for the 212th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. We’re trying to outdo our previous effort with full coverage of the meeting. Phil Plait, Pamela Gay, Chris Lintott are at the conference, as well as Universe Today’s Nancy Atkinson. I wasn’t able to go this time around, but I’ll be helping out from afar.

I’ll warn you right now, there’s going to be an enormous amount of news. I’ve seen some of the embargoed press releases (shhhh, don’t tell anyone), and there are going to be some really interesting discoveries getting announced.

Stay tuned for our coverage on Universe Today, but if you really want the full coverage from everyone, check out Astronomy Cast LIVE.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

I’m using Twitter?

I signed up for Twitter a couple of years ago, but I never got around to actually using it. Some part of my brain thinks it would be a great way to do… something. But I have no idea what that would be. I’ll need you to teach me, and help me understand what you’d like to see from my Twitter feed.

Obviously, you don’t want to hear about the minutia of my life, but I think there’s value in great big collaborative conversations. Part of me finds it very exciting, and part of me thinks it’s a time sucking black hole. What am I missing?

Here’s my Twitter feed.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Trailer for the International Year of Astronomy 2009

Okay, now I’m getting excited. As I’ve mentioned in the past, and will bring up again and again, the UN has designated 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. There are some really great projects planned that will try to get as many people as possible interested in astronomy. The IYA has released a cool trailer to get us all inspired. It’s working for me.