After a couple of months when I used summer as an excuse for not writing, Ph-posts are back. I spent a small part of this nice season at beaches around Attica, and one week roaming around Switzerland. I lived in Switzerland for three years in the past, but it still amazes me that a place can vacuum up your money so quickly without offering you any street food.
The description of this blog includes something about me “doing research under weird conditions”. One weird condition is trying to publish scientific articles without working in academia any more. Well, this went well for a second time, as my second solo article is now published in the journal Advances in Space Research (here).
It is called “Planetary statistics and forecasting for solar flares” and it is about the, eh, interesting idea that solar flares are influenced by the position of the planets. (You can read more about it on my website, at a page which needs updating at some point.)
So far there are some serious hints that this influence is really a thing, but still only hints. Hopefully, one day it might help make better forecasts of solar activity. Forecasts of solar activity may sound cute, but extreme solar activity, e.g. solar storms, can become a big pain for technologically semi-advanced civilizations; yes, this means humankind.
Let me say goodbye for now with a link to this year’s IgNobel prizes. My favourite one was the transportation prize. (While my all-time favourite is the 2012 neuroscience prize.)