by Richard Easther | Sep 15, 2025 | New Zealand, Science in Our Lives
New Zealand has unique opportunities in space. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post (which turned into a Newsroom piece) that featured a per capita plot of 2025 launches by the few countries that are capable of sending payloads to orbit. Data from http://planet4589.org...
by Richard Easther | Aug 4, 2025 | Education, Personal, Physics
For students, as for all of us, the first step into physics is via classical mechanics. Motion and force, as observed in familiar phenomena and everyday examples. A ball in play, a waka pulled through the water by its paddlers, the construction of Stonehenge: to...
by Richard Easther | Jul 25, 2025 | Education, New Zealand, Science in Our Lives
A new semester has kicked off, and I am teaching my half of “An Introduction to Rocket Science”, a new(ish) course at the University of Auckland (ASTRO 110, check it out). It’s about rocket science in the broad sense. On the one hand, human activity...
by Richard Easther | Jun 22, 2025 | Physics
Science makes progress in the same way as a bunch of kids collectively building a Dr Seuss castle in Minecraft. Pieces are added, removed, moved, swapped, new towers sprout in unexpected directions. But knowledge emerges from the squabble, and some contributions...
by Richard Easther | May 4, 2025 | Featured, Personal, Physics
For those of us who work with them every day, equations become almost tactile. Some are as sharp as flints, others as edgeless as a beach pebble worn by waves and sand and time. In particular, the deepest relationships in nature are often expressed by equations which,...
