Scientists in the Spotlight

There was an article in the New York Times a few days ago (around Oscar time) about actresses in scientific disciplines. It was written by Natalie Angier about Acting and Science. Overall it is a great article about how scientists sneak up where we least expect them, as is the case with Natalie Portman and other notable actors.

I will not summarise the article here as it's worth a read yourself, but I would like to quickly pull out the last line: "You can be a scientist, but if you want your name in lights, you’d better play one on TV."

Is not that just a little sad? Thanks to my days on the stage, I have a bit of a bug that would love to see my "name in lights", and now I am being told that my career will never lead to world-wide fame. Okay, I am probably taking this a bit seriously as it is not the point of the article, but it fills me with a bit of sadness because yes, it is probably true. Things should change. 

On a side note, I didn't know that Amy Farrah-Fowler from The Big Bang Theory is played by a woman who has a Ph.D. in neurobiology in real life. How great is that? I knew she was too good at her role! 

Incredibly cool picture of the ISS and Shuttle!

Seriously, this picture is amazing. I usually do not like simply parroting what other and much more qualified science bloggers post, but I found this on Phil Plait's blog a few days back and it was mentioned again today on twitter:

This is AMAZING. This picture was taken by Rob Bullen on 26 February in the Forest of Dean (any story that relates to Harry Potter in the most obscure way already gets +10 Erin's Attention Points). He took this with a 8.5" telescope which is pretty attainable by amateur astronomer standards. The best part? He hand guided the telescope!! You can read the official entry by Mr Bullen here.

Phil Plait already scooped me on this, but this is also SO reminiscent of some bad-ass scene that you would find in Star Wars. Anyone who knows my love for Star Wars related objects in space (*ahem* Mimas) knows that I would get fangirly and giggly over this. I hope you felt a little twinge of excitement when you saw this amazing image, too!