Adam Frank
Adam Frank was a contributor to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. A professor at the University of Rochester, Frank is a theoretical/computational astrophysicist and currently heads a research group developing supercomputer code to study the formation and death of stars. Frank's research has also explored the evolution of newly born planets and the structure of clouds in the interstellar medium. Recently, he has begun work in the fields of astrobiology and network theory/data science. Frank also holds a joint appointment at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, a Department of Energy fusion lab.
Frank is the author of two books: The Constant Fire, Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate (University of California Press, 2010), which was one of SEED magazine's "Best Picks of The Year," and About Time, Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang (Free Press, 2011). He has contributed to The New York Times and magazines such as Discover, Scientific American and Tricycle.
Frank's work has also appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009. In 1999 he was awarded an American Astronomical Society prize for his science writing.
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When you fall in love with science, ordinary, everyday stuff can suddenly seem extraordinary. That's how NPR Blogger and astrophysicist Adam Frank sees it — today he sees it in dust.
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Writer and astrophysicist Adam Frank says: Make friends with science, and the ordinary, everyday stuff will transform into the extraordinary. Now look around you — the mail, the kids' toys, the mess on your desk, the constant daily chaos? It's inevitable, and science proves it.
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Refining our capacity to notice is an act of reverence that we can bring to everywhere and everywhen. It's an invitation, bringing the world's most basic presence into view, opening our horizons and restoring our spirits. -
Are you one of the last humans who will ever live? Commentator Adam Frank takes us through the famous Doomsday Argument and what it means. -
Can we really see the Universe in a grain of sand, even as we slog through traffic? Can we really hold infinity in our hands, even as we drop off the kids to Violin practice? Commentator Adam Frank says we can if we take the time to notice the beauty of the natural world surrounding us. -
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This year, Americans saw a strangely warm winter, a ridiculously hot summer and extreme drought conditions. As Hurricane Sandy advances on the East Coast, folks may be wondering if climate change has come to pass. Let's see what science can tell us. -
The vast web of geometries traced out in light shows you cities as a kind of infestation. They're like living networks spreading across the planet. -
There are days can't be set down on a calendar a year in advance. Their appearance is a testament to the fact that we are more than rational, calculating machines lifted above the natural world.
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The second law of thermodynamics is a kind of warning to cities and civilization. No matter how clever we are, disorder, waste and pollution will always follow from our work organizing societies into cities.
