Think solar flares are going to wreak havoc now? Wait till you read what happened in the 19th century:

“In September of 1859, the entire Earth was engulfed in a gigantic cloud of seething gas, and a blood-red aurora erupted across the planet from the poles to the tropics. Around the world, telegraph systems crashed, machines burst into flames, and electric shocks rendered operators unconscious. Compasses and other sensitive instruments reeled as if struck by a massive magnetic fist….Nobody knew what could have released such strange forces upon the Earth–nobody, that is, except the amateur English astronomer Richard Carrington who had observed a mysterious explosion on the surface of the Sun…”

Read The Sun Kings to learn more about Carrington and the solar flares of 1859..

We were thrilled to read Jennifer Schuessler’s terrific story on the popular phenomenon of bar lecturing (and not in an intoxicated way, but a learned way!) Check out her story here. It looks like alcohol and science is a powerful (and successful) formula.

The Press is pleased to have had the pleasure of working with the Secret Science Club as they’ve hosted talks for a handful of our science authors. In particular, I was delighted to see friend-of-the-Press Dorian Devins at the SSC getting a mention!

James Kasting, author of How to Find a Habitable Planet, will be speaking at the Christopher Ingold Chemistry Lecture Theatre on Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 5:30 pm. A wine reception and book signing will follow the lecture. This event is free to attend, but please register tickets at: www.eventbrite.com/event/2278312494

“In their 2000 book, Rare Earth, Peter Ward and Don Brownlee argue that complex life (i.e., animal life) is rare in our galaxy for a variety of reasons, some of which are based on the idea that habitable planets are themselves rare. Possible reasons for this include: 1) Plate tectonics (possibly necessary to stabilize planetary climates) is rare; 2) large moons (possibly necessary to stabilize planetary obliquities) are rare; 3) magnetic fields (possibly necessary to retain atmospheres) are rare; 4) the Sun is anomalously metal-rich; 5) Jupiter-sized outer planets (possibly necessary to protect the Earth from frequent large impacts) are rare. In my talk, I will review these Rare Earth arguments and show that most, or all, of them are less troubling than Ward and Brownlee supposed. Despite this, perhaps there are other factors that could make habitable planets scarce. But this should not discourage us from building the types of large space telescopes required to actually answer this question.”

If you are in the New York City area this Monday, October 3, please come out to the Amercan Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium to see author and astronomer Ray Jayawardhana discuss his new book STRANGE NEW WORLDS: The Search for Alien Planets and life beyond Our Solar System. The event begins at 7:30 PM for the Hayden’s renowned Fronters in Astrophysics lecture series.

To whet your appetite, check out Ray’s recent talk at Google below.

Read an exclusive excerpt from Reinventing Discovery: When Amateurs Rival Professionals [PDF].

This week, it seems as though everyone is talking about an amazing breakthrough in AIDS research that was made possible by an online game called Foldit. Foldit is a terrific example of how open science can be a “research accelerator” and illustrates the benefits of crowdsourcing in high level research. But how does it work? Why is it so successful? And how can we get more of it to happen? Foldit is part of a larger revolution happening in science and Michael Nielsen’s new book Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science explains it all.

“For many participants, Foldit … [isn't] a guilty pleasure, like playing World of Warcraft or other online games. Instead, [it's] a way of contributing to something important to society,” writes Michael Nielsen in this exclusive free excerpt from his new book Reinventing Discovery: When Amateurs Rival Professionals [PDF].

Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science ships soon and you can pre-order a copy on our web site or via your favorite online retailer.

I also ran across a great web site at Scientific American where they profile these types of online collaborations. Check it out here.

Before we get all the way back to the Big Bang, there may have been a time when stars like our Sun and galaxies like our Milky Way did not exist, because the Universe was denser than it is now. Harvard professor Avi Loeb explores how and when the first stars and galaxies formed in this talk taped at the Santa Barbara Museum of Science.

We are the publishers of Loeb’s recent book titled, appropriately enough, How Did the First Stars and Galaxies Form?

With NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) plummeting to earth on Friday, September 23rd (U.S. date), you’re probably going to be watching the sky. It could be quite the light show depending on where you are and where it falls. Not to worry, NASA says the public safety risk is extremely small. The satellite will break up into pieces during re-entry, but not all of it will burn up as it re-enters earth’s atmosphere adding to the excitement of watching the sky. NASA is posting UARS updates to their website and you can follow it here:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/index.html .

Around the world, armchair astronomers will also be keeping a close eye on the sky. Did you know back in the 1950′s thousands of ordinary people across the globe seized the opportunity to participate in the start of the Space Age? Known as the “Moonwatchers,” these largely forgotten citizen-scientists helped professional astronomers by providing critical and otherwise unavailable information about the first satellites. In Keep Watching the Skies!, Patrick McCray tells the story of this network of pioneers who, fueled by civic pride and exhilarated by space exploration, took part in the twentieth century’s biggest scientific endeavor. You can read chapter one at:
http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8645.html

Moonwatchers witnessed firsthand the astonishing beginning of the Space Age. In the process, these amateur scientists organized themselves into a worldwide network of satellite spotters that still exists today. Drawing on previously unexamined letters, photos, scrapbooks, and interviews, Keep Watching the Skies! recreates a pivotal event from a perspective never before examined–that of ordinary people who leaped at a chance to take part in the excitement of space exploration.

Keep Watching the Skies!
The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age
by W. Patrick McCray

Even though the cover is reversed, that galley is easily recognizable as Reinventing Discovery by Michael Nielsen. We expect finished books in October, but so far most of the reactions have been, well, you can see for yourself…

Via our friends at Citizen Science Quarterly.

David Weintraub’s most recent book, How Old Is the Universe?, is a readable investigation of the title question that explains how we have arrived at an approximate age of 13.7 billion years for the universe. Weintraub works his way from biblical chronology of the origins of the universe to the high-tech astronomy research taking place today in this accessible and entertaining history. We recently posed some questions to Prof. Weintraub by email and are pleased to present this dialogue.

PUP: I am not an astronomer, so I was relieved to discover I could actually read How Old Is the Universe? You clearly went to great efforts to make the text accessible. How difficult was it to break down these big scientific ideas, terms, and facts for general readers?

Professor David Weintraub: Making sure I was speaking to a non-professional audience in English rather than in the jargon-filled language of astronomy was a constant challenge. A major goal with this book is to help general-audience readers understand the complicated and unfamiliar concepts described between the covers. Consequently I focused on this issue quite literally with every word I wrote. At the risk of being struck down by the gods for hubris, I do think I have done better at this than most astronomers who are trying to communicate with a non-professional audience. Nevertheless, more than a few of my descriptions passed through my ‘language of the lay reader’ filter unnoticed by me. Fortunately, Princeton University Press assigned my manuscript to an editor who asked me lots of excellent questions for clarification, and quite often her questions arose when she bumped into a piece of text in which the meaning was unclear to her because of my too-technical word choices. I do think, in the end, the presentation of difficult concepts in this book is accessible to the general reader because we paid such close attention to language and because I continually reminded myself of whom the readership of the book is intended to be. My editor was a humanist who knew no astronomy before beginning to edit the book. So she was my test reader; if she didn’t understand my words, I flunked the test. When we were done, she felt that she understood every word and had learned and now understood everything in the book. Fortunately for her and all readers, unless you are in one of my classes, there is no test at the end of each chapter.

Continue reading this Q&A after the jump.

David Weintraub’s How Old is the Universe? offers a wonderfully sweeping history of humankind’s investigation of the universe, perfect for anyone interested in astronomy, no matter what level. Thanks to its accessible narrative and lucid explanations of scientific concepts throughout, Weintraub’s book is also excellently suited for use as a main or supplementary text in any introductory astronomy or astrophysics course.

Instructors will be interested to discover that How Old is the Universe? makes a number of unique offerings to the pedagogical literature:

Uses the idea of answering a single, fundamental question about the universe to help students place an enormous amount of basic astrophysical information into context. Each and every new idea and concept – e.g., radioactivity, parallax, the inverse square law, spectral lines, redshifts, the H-R diagram, variable stars, nuclear fusion, stellar evolution, degenerate matter, white dwarfs, supernovae, the big bang, the cosmic microwave background, the expanding universe, dark matter, dark energy, the accelerating universe – very clearly builds on the previous one and leads the reader closer to understanding the answer to the title question;

If you are an instructor and are interested in using How Old Is the Universe? in a course, you can request an examination copy for consideration by using our online form. Furthermore, you can find supplementary teaching materials at a dedicated site, created and maintained by the author:

• PowerPoint lectures, approximately one per chapter;
• Mathematical supplements, approximately one per chapter;
• Homework questions, approximately one set per chapter.

* Please note that these are not for sale or distributed by Princeton University Press; they are the personal creative work of the author, for use only for purposes of teaching.

This video was taped at Vanderbilt University as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Earlier videos in this series:
Part 1: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=9307
Part 2: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=10029
Part 3: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=10033
Part 4: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=10036

Dr. Weintraub is author of How Old Is the Universe? You can read an excerpt of this book here.

This video was taped at Vanderbilt University as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Earlier videos in this series:
Part 1: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=9307
Part 2: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=10029
Part 3: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=10033

Dr. Weintraub is author of How Old Is the Universe? You can read an excerpt of this book here.