Marek kukula biography samples

An Asset to Astronomy

The public astronomer from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich enthuses on the attractions of Orkney for astronomers, as well as inventive ways for Orcadians to get involved in science and stargazing.

I meet Dr Marek Kukula in the cafe of the Astronomy Centre, an impressive new hilltop facility in Greenwich Park, London, equipped with galleries and a planetarium, a public programme of talks and events, seeing 24,000 school children through its schools programme every year. However, the site is no longer an operating observatory – partly due to the problem of light pollution in London – so astronomers have to go further afield for the best night skies, further afield to places like Orkney. Marek came to the Orkney Science Festival in September, and – together with two other astronomers – was part of a three-day programme of talks and night sky watching on North Ronaldsay.

Marek is effusive about the “fantastically dark skies” of Orkney and in particularly on North Ronaldsay, where – with few street lights or lit-up buildings – there is very little light pollution. “The night sky was incredible,” he says. “I actually found it hard to recognise the constellations because there were so many stars visible… You could see things there that you would just never see from London.”

Dr Kukula talks knowledgeably yet is easily understood, fitting his job which is to make sure that t

Discover more when he joins Marek to talk at our Observatory on Friday.  Within days of meeting Marek, I cynically exploited his scientific knowledge for a Doctor Who audiobook I was writing.

The story featured the Third Doctor, working as scientific advisor to UNIT with his clever companion Liz Shaw – who had degrees in “medicine, physics and a dozen other subjects” according to Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart I asked Marek: “If a smallish, people-carrier-sized ship was to crash into the Pennines at about the time of [1970 Doctor Who story] The Ambassadors of Death, would UNIT have been able to spot it in advance, and how much warning would they have got?” And he said: “Hmm.. Interesting history of science/technology question... Ignoring the old UNIT dating controversy [where stories made in the 1970s were set in the near future], I think it's fair to say that in the 70s they could easily have detected something that size via standard military radar sweeps once it was in the atmosphere over the British Isles or nearby parts of Europe and the Atlantic – but at a typical re-entry speed that would probably give you a few minutes or tens of minutes warning at most.

Modern radar routinely allows us to track debris in Earth orbit down to sizes of a few centimetres across and if we know where to look we can track asteroids just a few meters across at distances of hundreds of thousands of km (which would give you days of lead-in time). So, given the British government's apparent ability to send astronauts to Mars and Jupiter in the 1970s (or 80s), I don't think it would be implausible to have UNIT doing this sort of thing even back then.”

I then asked: “What tests would Cambridge physicist Liz Shaw want to do on an alien spaceship? I'm thinking she wants to treat it as an artefact from space, and go slow. The Doctor, meanwhile, sees this stuff all the time and is more bothered about checking – quickly – for survivors.” To which Marek answered: “Well, I guess y

Do you want to learn more about the science behind your favourite Timelord-based television show? Do you want something that, though a work of non-fiction, is never dry or didactic, is never highfaluting nor patronising, and contextualises the concepts it introduces by linking them to specific Doctor Who stories throughout? Then this, my friend is the book for you.

Not your sort of thing? How about fifteen beautifully written short stories featuring your favourite Timelord-based television show and with a list of authors that reads like a Who’s Who of Who?  How about Justin Richards, Jacqueline Rayner, and Andrew Cartmel (for a start) penning these stories, each one encapsulating perfectly the themes that make for a traditional Doctor Who story? Then this, my friend is the book for you…

The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who contains fifteen chapters, each introduced with a short story then, viewed through the lens of televised adventures, followed with the history, current research and theoretical concepts behind topics such as space travel, the laws of time, evolution and artificial intelligence. The facts read as easily as the fiction, and the book flows stylistically from genre to genre with ease.   And the fact that it does flow so beautifully is important. As someone who works in the field of education, I really do believe that our brains are more receptive to learning when we are happy and when we are entertained. This is where we soak up knowledge without even realising it – learning by stealth, if you like. And it’s by stealth that I learned a lot of stuff through reading this book. For example:

Our sun is currently middle-aged, and will, eventually, cool, redden and become a Red Giant. As a result, the Earth’s demise will likely play out in exactly the same way it did in the 2005 story The End of the World.

Potatoes are easy to clone, and this couldbe the inspiration for Sontarans, who are also clones. And armour clad, warlike potatoes.

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