Dan Falk
@danfalk.bsky.social
Hi! I write about #science for Smithsonian, Discover, Quanta, Nautilus, Undark, National Geographic, CBC Radio, & many other outlets. Books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time. Co-host of BookLab podcast. 🔭🪐⭐️⚛️
I've been pondering the relationship between Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and Bobby Sands' "Back Home in Derry" -- which appears to be sparking some confusion... #music
November 11, 2025 at 12:45 AM
I've been pondering the relationship between Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and Bobby Sands' "Back Home in Derry" -- which appears to be sparking some confusion... #music
Happy "Lights All Askew" Day to all who celebrate! (Headline in the New York Times from Nov. 10, 1919, brings Einstein's theory of gravity, general relativity -- along with its alleged incomprehensibility -- to the public.) 🪐🔭🧠📰 #physics #science #histsci #lightsallaskew
November 10, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Happy "Lights All Askew" Day to all who celebrate! (Headline in the New York Times from Nov. 10, 1919, brings Einstein's theory of gravity, general relativity -- along with its alleged incomprehensibility -- to the public.) 🪐🔭🧠📰 #physics #science #histsci #lightsallaskew
1/2 English astronomer, mathematician and physicist Edmond Halley was born #OTD in 1656. Pix of his house in Oxford, and the plaque in Westminster Abbey are by me from 2023. (cont'd)
November 9, 2025 at 2:00 AM
1/2 English astronomer, mathematician and physicist Edmond Halley was born #OTD in 1656. Pix of his house in Oxford, and the plaque in Westminster Abbey are by me from 2023. (cont'd)
Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie, known as Marie Curie, was born #OTD in 1867. Curie was the 1st person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and remains the only person to have won it in 2 scientific fields ( #physics and #chemistry ). I took these photos of her birthplace (now a museum) in #Warsaw in 2018.
November 7, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie, known as Marie Curie, was born #OTD in 1867. Curie was the 1st person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and remains the only person to have won it in 2 scientific fields ( #physics and #chemistry ). I took these photos of her birthplace (now a museum) in #Warsaw in 2018.
November 5, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Greetings from @utoronto.ca ( @harthouseuoft.bsky.social )in #Toronto (about as Parisian as you can get, around here :) ). #photography #blackandwhite
November 4, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Greetings from @utoronto.ca ( @harthouseuoft.bsky.social )in #Toronto (about as Parisian as you can get, around here :) ). #photography #blackandwhite
Always a good day when the new Observer’s Handbook arrives: #astronomy
November 3, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Always a good day when the new Observer’s Handbook arrives: #astronomy
Prob the most creative “set” from last night on Harbord St. ( #toronto #halloween )
November 2, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Prob the most creative “set” from last night on Harbord St. ( #toronto #halloween )
Behold Comet Lemmon in all its (let's say) glory! ( 📷 Photo by me, earlier this evening. Plus some annotations.) #comet #CometLemmon #Toronto #photography #astrophotography
October 27, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Behold Comet Lemmon in all its (let's say) glory! ( 📷 Photo by me, earlier this evening. Plus some annotations.) #comet #CometLemmon #Toronto #photography #astrophotography
Just for fun, behold some of my ancient baseball cards:
October 26, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Just for fun, behold some of my ancient baseball cards:
Yay for me finally clueing in that there's an M and a B in the Milwaukee Brewers logo. (In my defence, I never really examined it closely until today.)
October 13, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Yay for me finally clueing in that there's an M and a B in the Milwaukee Brewers logo. (In my defence, I never really examined it closely until today.)
October 11, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Kudos to Sam Kean for a pretty solid Dennis Miller ratio: His 2025 book Dinner With King Tut (A) contains an in-joke referencing Steven Shapin’s 1996 book The Scientific Revolution (B):
October 7, 2025 at 1:30 AM
Kudos to Sam Kean for a pretty solid Dennis Miller ratio: His 2025 book Dinner With King Tut (A) contains an in-joke referencing Steven Shapin’s 1996 book The Scientific Revolution (B):
Earlier this evening in Toronto:
October 6, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Earlier this evening in Toronto:
Putting aside my own contribution (see top left corner), I really love Mateusz Napieralski's artwork on the cover of the current issue of the Literary Review of Canada:
October 2, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Putting aside my own contribution (see top left corner), I really love Mateusz Napieralski's artwork on the cover of the current issue of the Literary Review of Canada:
September 30, 2025 at 5:39 PM
See also Dennett calling it out, back in 1991:
September 29, 2025 at 3:45 PM
See also Dennett calling it out, back in 1991:
Me: “There’s no point nit-picking Hollywood movies; they’re not documentaries.” Also me: “This would only work on (or near) the equinoxes.”
September 28, 2025 at 5:21 AM
Me: “There’s no point nit-picking Hollywood movies; they’re not documentaries.” Also me: “This would only work on (or near) the equinoxes.”
I guess we’ll be seeing more of this.
September 26, 2025 at 9:59 PM
I guess we’ll be seeing more of this.
Today is the anniversary of the liquidation of the #Vilnius ghetto (Sept 23-24, 1943). Of #Lithuania 's pre-war Jewish population of about 210,000, as many as 195,000 were murdered (almost certainly including my maternal grandfather's parents and two of his siblings). Photos from a visit in 2018.
September 23, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Today is the anniversary of the liquidation of the #Vilnius ghetto (Sept 23-24, 1943). Of #Lithuania 's pre-war Jewish population of about 210,000, as many as 195,000 were murdered (almost certainly including my maternal grandfather's parents and two of his siblings). Photos from a visit in 2018.