@richardfisher.bsky.social
Senior Editor, Aeon | Author of non-fiction book The Long View | Honorary professor in science communication, UCL | Formerly: BBC Future, MIT Knight Science Journalism fellow, New Scientist | https://richardfisher.carrd.co
@richardfisher.bsky.socialThe ELT's first light is expected 2029/2030... One for the diary!
@richardfisher.bsky.socialAh thank you, very kind! Would highly recommend visiting with ESO if you can - it felt like a totally unique place, with a lovely group of people hosting us (though maybe you've already been?)
@richardfisher.bsky.socialAnd the stunning architecture of the Residencia where ESO's astronomers and engineers live while at Paranal (also where Quantum of Solace was filmed). I felt lucky to stay there too - it was an incredible trip! ⚛️🧪 www.bbc.com/future/artic...
@richardfisher.bsky.socialThe ongoing awe-inspiring construction project that is the Extremely Large Telescope ⚛️ 🧪 www.bbc.com/future/artic...
@richardfisher.bsky.socialWhile there, I also reported on the battle to maintain darkness in one of the world's last refuges without significant light-pollution ⚛️ 🧪 www.bbc.com/future/artic...
@richardfisher.bsky.socialThe last of a series of pieces I wrote for the BBC about ESO's telescopes in the Atacama Desert - why do they fire massive lasers into the atmosphere? ⚛️🧪 www.bbc.com/future/artic...
@richardfisher.bsky.socialUntil I met astronomer @richardvnd.bsky.social I did not know that colliding black holes 'ring'... nor that they seem to forget all the violence of such an event. He wrote about why that fascinates him in this mind-expanding essay for @aeon.co 🧪⚛️
@richardfisher.bsky.socialOne day, historian Alison Bashford opened a manila file in the Wellcome Collection and came across this striking palm print, owned by a gorilla called "Mok"... it would lead to a deep dive into medicine's fascination with decoding the hand 🧪 #histsci aeon.co/essays/what-...
@richardfisher.bsky.socialAh picking a scientist is doable if it's a single nation funding a telescope (eg Vera Rubin) but politically tricky with a consortium of nations. Each country wants their own scientist. (Similar with the Large Hadron Collider!)
@richardfisher.bsky.social⚛️🧪
@richardfisher.bsky.socialRecently I went to Chile to see the Extremely Large Telescope being built in the Atacama. The BBC just published my feature about its construction challenges, the discoveries to come, and its fun name...the result of what I call telescopic "nominative magnification". :) www.bbc.com/future/artic...
