My famous father — the fraudulent, fantasist scientist
She wasn't the only one to have this inflated view of her father's expertise. Indeed, the scientific establishment shared it, at least for a while. Michael was a Nasa space scientist turned pharmacologist, a renowned specialist in biochemistry, an adviser to the World Health Organisation and a university dean of sciences. He had written papers on topics ranging from human hormones to meteorites and intergalactic travel. The son of a typewriter mechanic from Manchester, he was a self-made man, bouncing round the world from Australia to Pasadena, taking on ever more prestigious positions, pushing at the boundaries of the scientific imagination and 'grabbing hold of everything the Jet Age had to offer'.
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Telegraph
44 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Perseid meteor shower: When and how to watch the celestial spectacle
Stargazers will have their best chance to see the annual Perseid meteor shower on Tuesday night. The Perseid shower can contain 50 to 100 meteors per hour, and has been described by Nasa as the 'most popular meteor shower of the year'. Here is everything you need to know about how and when to catch the display in the skies above Britain. What is the Perseid meteor shower? Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through a stream of meteoroids, which are pieces of debris left behind by a comet. In the case of the Perseid shower, the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle has passed through the solar system and left a giant, invisible trail of space debris. Upon coming into contact with the Earth's atmosphere, the debris burns up – creating bright, fiery streaks which we can see. The Perseid shower – named after Perseus, the constellation that the meteors are believed to originate from – are also known for their fireballs. These are characterised by larger explosions of light and colour which stay in the sky for longer than the average meteor streak. What time will it be visible? The Perseid shower has been active since July 17 and will continue until Aug 24. Your best chance of catching a glimpse is from midnight on Tuesday until the early hours of Wednesday. Where is the best place to watch? Visibility of this year's Perseid meteor shower may be hindered by the Sturgeon Moon – the name given to the August full moon – which will continue to illuminate the night sky on Tuesday. Stargazers in northern England, East Anglia and the Midlands are expected to have clear skies throughout the night, with some cloudy spots in Northern Ireland as well as the south coast and north-west of England. To give yourself the best chance of seeing the phenomenon, avoid areas with lots of lights, such as towns and cities, which can create a glare and obscure your view. Lying down with a view of the whole sky gives you the best chance of spotting meteors. Ensure you give your eyes time to adjust to the darkness – it can take about 20 minutes for them to adapt.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Scientists reveal desperate six-word plea for interstellar object ahead of Earth encounter
Scientists are urging NASA to send a message to a mysterious interstellar object before it is too late. The object, known as 3I/ATLAS, is traveling on a rare retrograde path and will reach its closest point to the sun on October 29, 2025, which Harvard physicist Avi Loeb suggested could be an ideal window for a covert approach on Earth. While Loeb is not 100 percent sure 3I/ATLAS is of alien origin, he proposed communicating with it as a precaution and crafted a six-word message for the occasion. The physicist told the Daily Mail that he wants to beam, 'Hello, welcome to our neighborhood. Peace!' 'The only way to reach it now is with a beam of light,' Loeb explained, suggesting a radio message could be sent in hopes of detecting a response. Loeb warned that if the object is an alien probe, it could reach Earth by Christmas 2025, giving humanity only months to prepare for a possible encounter. However, he also acknowledged the risks, noting that any intelligent life aboard might see the signal as a threat. 'A visitor to our backyard, like 3I/ATLAS, can easily enter our home planet, Earth, within a travel time of less than a few months,' Loeb said. NASA detected the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, on July 1, sparking a flurry of scientific analysis to determine its origin. While more than 200 researchers have concluded it is likely a comet, Harvard physicist Avi Loeb has raised doubts in a newly released pre-print paper, pointing to one glaring omission: 3I/ATLAS has no visible tail. 'There were claims of a tail,' Loeb said, 'but since 3I/ATLAS is accelerating and its current size is not much larger than the angular resolution of Earth-based telescopes, it is not easy to avoid fictitious elongation of the image as a result of the object's motion.' He also questioned the object's unusual lack of gas emissions and its precise, retrograde trajectory, which aligns suspiciously well with the inner solar system. Loeb has developed what he calls the 'Loeb Scale', a ranking system to evaluate the likelihood that an object is artificial, and gave 3I/ATLAS a six out of ten. That suggests it is more likely than not to be engineered, though he emphasized that this score may change as more data becomes available. 'During an exchange with 3I/ATLAS, we could use the Turing Test as a measure of the intelligence with which we communicate, as long as the two sides develop a common language for communication,' Loeb shared in a blog post. 'Our side of the communication channel can be assisted by our most advanced artificial intelligence systems to decode the messages we receive. 'But as anyone who went on a blind date knows, exchanging text messages could be a very different experience than an actual encounter 'in person.'' Among his more provocative theories, Loeb suggested 3I/ATLAS could be an alien mothership releasing small probes to intercept Earth. 'The more likely scenario from an engineering perspective involves a mothership that releases mini-probes which perform a reverse Oberth maneuver to slow down at perihelion and intercept Earth,' Loeb wrote. This type of maneuver uses the sun's gravitational pull at the object's closest approach to adjust the trajectory efficiently, enabling the probes to reach Earth without large amounts of fuel. Chris Lintott, an astronomer at the University of Oxford, dismissed Loeb's theory as 'nonsense on stilts,' calling it 'an insult to the exciting work going on to understand this object.' However, Loeb said his analysis remains rooted in observational data. His latest paper, based on ground-based telescope readings between July 2 and 29, revealed reddening colors in 3I/ATLAS, usually interpreted as surface dust or organic compounds. Loeb noted that spectroscopic data from this and three previous studies show no signs of atomic or molecular gas in a coma, a feature typically expected in comets. While the reddening may suggest dust, it could also mean the object simply has a naturally red surface, much like D-type asteroids or other ancient space rocks. 'Continued monitoring around perihelion is necessary to track changes in activity and color,' the study concluded, 'which will provide insights into the evolution of interstellar materials under solar radiation.'
STV News
an hour ago
- STV News
How and where to see Perseid meteor shower tonight
Shooting stars will be visible across the UK during the annual Perseid meteor shower that will reach its peak on Tuesday night. While about 150 meteors will cross the sky per hour, only up to 100 of them might be visible. The meteor shower occurs every summer. This year's has already been running for several weeks but is expected to be most visible on Tuesday night. Where can I see it? The meteor shower will be visible across all of the UK, but will be most visible in the north-east of the UK as the sun sets. The further south you go, the lower Perseid sits on the horizon, making the spectacle harder to see. Experts say stargazers have a better chance of seeing shooting stars in areas with less light pollution. Royal Observatory Greenwich astronomer Ed Bloomer said: 'Getting into the middle of a field in the south east of England, in London, is going to be better than being in the middle of Aberdeen,' Dr Bloomer said. The Perseid meteor shower seen over Norfolk in 2020. / Credit: PA When and how can I see it? Once the sun sets, clear skies will afford good visibility on Tuesday night, although a waning full moon might make it brighter than normal and obscure the perfect view. The meteor shower will be best seen pre-dawn, but can also be visible from late at night. Find a place well away from street lamps, Dr Bloomer advises. Switch off any house lights if you are looking out from your garden. Dr Bloomer said you will need to allow time to let your eyes adjust to the dark before the meteor shower could be seen. He recommended viewers take a camping chair or a rug, sit down outside away from any light source and wait about half an hour. Shooting stars generally only last a second or two and sometimes appear in flurries. If you're struggling to see the meteor shower, Dr Bloomer suggested turning your head and watching through peripheral vision (side vision) as it can be easier to see in low light conditions. A meteor streaks across the sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower in 2021. / Credit: NASA What is a Perseid meteor shower? Every summer the Earth hits a trail of debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet as it orbits the sun. Specks as small as a grain of dust flare up under the pressure of the planet's atmosphere and create shooting stars and a long trail of light and colour. Perseid is considered the best meteor shower of the year and peaks in mid August. Perseids are also known for their fireballs, which are larger explosions of light and colour and bigger than the average meteor streak. This meteor shower has already been running for a few weeks and will continue until around August 24. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
