Since the successful launch of the MAUVE satellite on Friday, the telescope has been undergoing verification and calibration. Meanwhile, I’ve been hard at work using my advanced image processing skills to simulate what images of astronomical objects seen in other wavebands might look like using MAUVE.
I haven’t used my Youtube channel very much recently so to avoid disappointing my subscribers, of whom there are several, I have today uploaded a video showcasing the work of colleagues in the Physics Department at Maynooth.
This zoom in from an optical Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image shows how infrared observations by the James Web Space Telescope reveal the surprising details of the structure at the heart of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302
You can’t move on Twitter these days without seeing the above photograph which seems to have become the latest viral meme. The game as always is to tweet the picture with a suggestion of what the girl is saying. Here is my effort:
You can play the game yourself at home by suggesting your own version of what she’s saying. There are quite a lot of astronomy-related attempts circulating already. The Hubble Tension is an obvious example topic.
Interestingly, just like ChorizoGate, the picture in question was first circulated a few years ago (in 2019) and was also apparently created in Spain. Perhaps there’s some kind of law that states that these things circulate on a 3-4 year cycle?
Talking of ChorizoGate, especially the French Dimension thereof, I wondered whether the French word for “Meme” is the same as it is in English. The French word however turns out to be “Mème”. So the English word “Meme” is not quite the same in French; the French word for Meme is “Mème” which is also not quite the same in French (“Même”). To put it another way, “Même” is the same in French but it’s not the same as either “Mème” or “Meme” neither of which are the same in French (nor in English).
I hope this clarifies the situation.
P.S. I chose the title from the well-known French saying “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”.
Now that the social media fuss about ChorizoGate is dying down a bit I thought I’d change the subject completely by posting some music. This tune is by a band call Los Alacranes and it’s entitled … oh no! … Chorizo Sandwich
This morning I realized that almost exactly four years ago I visited the megalithic passage tomb at Knowth. In my post about that visit I mentioned the extraordinary stone carvings found outside the tomb and their possible connection with astronomy. Following on from ChorizoGate I can finally reveal that the solution to this ancient mystery is in fact gastronomical.
Images from the passage tomb at KnowthImages of sausagesFollow @telescoper
In every single one of the stories I’ve seen, the image, together with the JWST connection, is attributed to Étienne Klein who is apparently very well known in France as a popularizer of science in the French language. Because he writes and broadcasts in French he is not so well known outside France. Until recently that is!
To be honest I’m quite relieved to have avoided the media notoriety surrounding ChorizoGate, especially as it means I’ve avoided being on the front page of the Daily Star! Dr Klein is welcome to the publicity, though perhaps it might backfire on him…
Since Thursday, when I posted my piece on the background to ChorizoGate, I’ve been contacted by a significant number of people (some in private and some in public, on social media) with stories about the “French scientist” who spread the above image on Twitter. Some of these are rather worrying.
In particular, in 2016, Étienne Klein was involved in a scandal in which he was shown to have plagiarized some of the material in one of his popular books. This is mentioned only briefly on his wikipedia page, but there are articles about his plagiarism here and here (in French). This story accords with many of the public and private comments I’ve seen about his habitual plagiarism. In other words, he has form. A lot of it, even if only a fraction of what I’ve been told is true.
Étienne Klein’s appropriation of a silly joke is of no consequence, but I couldn’t help wondering how someone who would do that might behave with things that actually matter. Now I think I know the answer, and it’s worrying.
The views presented here are personal and not necessarily those of my employer (or anyone else for that matter).
Feel free to comment on any of the posts on this blog but comments may be moderated; anonymous comments and any considered by me to be vexatious and/or abusive and/or defamatory will not be accepted. I do not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify or agree with the opinions or statements of any information or other content in the comments on this site and do not in any way guarantee their accuracy or reliability.
In the Dark 