How to Become a Scientist

Just found this resource from an LJ community I follow. It's a discussion of what to do academically to become a scientist. Reminds me of my similar post (concentrating more on the time scales) from 2005.

"Why do we need to know...?"

Well, on the upside, I'm glad to know it's not just students in science classes.

Rockin' Astrophysicist

After a 30-year leave of absense to become Queen's lead guitarist, Brian May finally finished writing his astrophysics doctorate thesis. We don't know yet if his thesis committee has accepted it, and the actual graduation wouldn't be until next May (2008).

N-body problem

Next time you need some entertainment, check out this Planet simulation game. Although "solving" the three-body problem is not possible, simulations are trivial. For a couple goals, try to get a "Mercury" type planet - closer to the Sun than the Earth, highly elliptical orbit. When you get it, it will precess naturally due to Earth's gravitation (rather than due to general relativity as Einstein proved). And a harder goal is getting a Moon to orbit the Earth (I haven't managed yet).