Cosmic Chemist

The Cosmic Chemist enters the Leiden Observatory as a Marie Curie Fellow

This is a bit overdue, but better late than never. Just over a month ago I came crashing into Leiden from Paris, thus starting my two-year Marie Curie Fellowship at the Leiden Observatory. The landing was a tad rough I must admit. Simultaneously moving in officially with my partner and starting this postdoc without a … Continue reading The Cosmic Chemist enters the Leiden Observatory as a Marie Curie Fellow

Cosmic Chemist

Mr Freeze‘s Freeze Gun – The Real One…. or Fake One… Which is Real…yes

Two and a half years ago I wrote about the science of Mr. Freeze´s freezing gun with reference to the 1997 epic (flop) Batman and Robin. This small blog is still generating views and is the most visited thing on my site that I've ever written. But why is that? What is it about the … Continue reading Mr Freeze‘s Freeze Gun – The Real One…. or Fake One… Which is Real…yes

Cosmic Chemist

First SOLEIL paper (finally) published

I'm very happy to report that my first co-authored paper that includes work I've done since starting my current postdoc position has been published. It is astrochemistry-oriented and is entitled "Photoionization and dissociative photoionization of propynal in the gas phase: Theory and experiment". In short we used the SAPHIRS endstation at the DESIRS beamline at … Continue reading First SOLEIL paper (finally) published

Cosmic Chemist

The Science of Paul Anderson’s Event Horizon – The Science of Our Fear

As an eleven year old boy I started to watch horror films. Whether this had a negative influence on my psyche remains to be seen but this was really the consequence of circumstance rather than poor parenting on my folks’ behalf. It was just a really bad coincidence that the first horror film I (inadvertently) … Continue reading The Science of Paul Anderson’s Event Horizon – The Science of Our Fear