Dec 24, 2015
2015 was a magnificent year for physics. Not only was it the
International Year of
Light and light-based technologies, it was an outstanding year
of astronomical achievement, culminating with the magnificent
New
Horizons photos of Pluto. It was also 100 years since the
Theory of General Relativity was published, and 50 years since
the Cosmic
Background Radiation was discovered.
Australia also broke a couple of astronomical world records:
The most people stargazing across Australia, and in a
single location at ANU. One of the organisers of this world
record was Tom Gordon, a science communicator at
The University of Sydney who runs Kickstart Physics
(Instagram), which
are physics workshops aimed at year 12 science students and
teachers. Tom, along with Christie McMonigal and Shane Hengst, runs
the STEMPunk
podcast, chatting about science communication and Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): Communicating
scientifically with science communicators.
Who better to talk to about this splendid year in Physics than
Tom?