Playing games in my free time…and when I should be doing other things
NASA recently announced that it’s planet hunter, TESS, had observed its first star shredded by a black hole in a tidal disruption event. What happened to that star? And what is TESS helping scientists learn about it? I talk about this and how the discovery connects to the game Clank!
A group of researchers recently reported that they were able to determine the mass of a supermassive black hole by mapping out a disk of gas swirling around it. In this video I discuss this result and how it connects to the game On Tour.
A little while ago I wrote about space as a theme in games, and how one compelling reason to use it as a them is […] Read More
This year – 2019 – has been named the International Year of the Periodic Table to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the development of this tool that is used across the sciences. I discuss how an astronomer sees the periodic table and how it connects to the game Century: Golem Edition (or Century Spice Road).
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory recently announced that for the first time they had imaged the dusty ring around a type of galaxy called an […] Read More
In my latest video, I talk about the 100th anniversary of the solar eclipse that propelled Einstein into the public’s eye by providing a test for his general theory of relativity.
However, that solar eclipse wasn’t actually the first test of general relativity…nor, of course, was it the last. Sometimes it feels like everyone wants to take a shot at Einstein to prove him wrong, but they have to take a number, because scientists have been doing that for the last century.
Find out how a total solar eclipse 100 years ago is responsible for propelling Albert Einstein to fame – and how I connect this to my game shelf.
Space is used as a theme in a wide variety of games across the entire spectrum of mechanics, length, weight, and player-count. But why is it such a compelling theme for games?
Constellations have long been associated with astronomy – understandably, because constellations are found in the night sky, and astronomers study objects found in the night sky. However, one thing I’d like to straighten out – astronomers don’t study the constellations themselves.
A team of scientists with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope recently released a set of gamma-ray constellations. While these constellations are not visible to our eyes, they do continue the long tradition of telling stories about groups of bright lights in the night sky. I, this video, I discuss these new (unofficial) constellations and connect them to the game Gloom.