codeXgalactic hosts technical writings of the work of Christine Corbett Moran, Ph.D., as well as musings on productivity. For polished write-ups on humanities subjects, check out corbett.medium.com
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Paper, astrolabe, ruler, compass: a short introduction to the math behind general relativity
I’m going attempt to give an accessible introduction to general relativity for non-mathematicians without glossing over the mathematical objects one must to get a feel for to be able to follow research in the area. Let me know how successful I am! Read More …
Durham University Institute for Computational Cosmology visit
Visit to the Durham University Institute for Computational Cosmology I spent last week hosted by the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, staying in “Castle” one of the historic colleges of the university, an actual, honest to goodness Castle and a World Heritage Site. Durham University has a lot to offer, a huge cosmology and astronomy department, Read More …
Of Course I Still Love You!
(featured image credit: SpaceX Instagram) I’ll be on the Space Coast for the rest of the week covering the CRS7 Launch, set to go off this coming Sunday June 28, 10:21EDT*. Follow me on twitter for more regular updates. I can also always recommend watching the streaming feeds of the launch, which are available via SpaceX‘s Read More …
Population III stars were fusing hydrogen before it was the hot thing to do
featured image credit: M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory Sobral et al. in recent work slated for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, claim observation of a galaxy, CR7, likely hosting a large contingent of Population III stars. The New York Times also has good summary; you know it’s important when actual stars get the movie star treatment. While I’m not in a position to Read More …
book review: Quantum Computing Since Democritus
There is both room for and a need for many different types of physicists and scientists to kick progress up a notch. Some of the most mind-stretching and inspiring are those who are philosophical about their work, as well as those who are interdisciplinary in their understanding. Scott Aaronson fits in both camps and shares Read More …
Happy Academic New Year, 2015
June 1, 2015 I was thrilled to start my 3 year tenure as an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow (NSF AAPF) at Caltech. I am therefore declaring June 1 as my official academic New Year. I’m treating this fellowship period as my shot to make a scientific difference, and here’s to the next 3 years. I have an structured routine scheduled, Read More …
Switching from OS X to Linux full time, software hints
I’ve been using Macs all my computing life, and relied heavily on headless Linux boxes for most of my computing career (I must also admit to two stints as a Windows user, during internships at FAST Search&Transfer and SpaceX respectively). Besides a small Linux laptop, which I got as a failed experiment, I’ve never before Read More …
#OCCUPYMARS: my experience as a SpaceX intern
I spent my Fall as an intern in propulsion analysis at SpaceX. I had unparalleled mentors in rocketry, computational physics and software engineering. The intern program is top-notch, and to me represented the most effective “in” to the notoriously selective and demanding company. Moreover, the internship duration was a perfect interlude in my academic career. Read More …
General Relativity (thesis series)
To start with some bonus material, the featured image of the post is from Einstein’s notebook during the period during which he was developing general relativity. This post is a continuation series of posts goes through the elements of the concordance cosmology: general relativity, inflation, the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe, cold dark matter (CDM) and a Read More …
Concordance Cosmology (thesis series)
This series of posts goes through the elements of the concordance cosmology: general relativity, inflation, the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe, cold dark matter (CDM) and a positive cosmological constant. I will start with a review of the historical, theoretical, and observational advances that led to each model’s widespread acceptance. The posts are excerpts from my Ph.D. thesis, lightly modified for blog format. No mathematical equations are written, with the intent of making the introductory material accessible to the non-specialist. A full bibliography of references in posts in this series is available. Read More …