Author Archives: gharp

About gharp

Trained in condensed matter physics at U.W.-Milwaukee; was once Assoc. Prof. of Physics at Ohio University, Athens, OH. Switched to Astrophysics in 2000 and joined SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA . Presently Harp is the director for SETI research and works with the radio telescope. Allen Telescope Array (ATA), to perform SETI and astrophysics observations.

May 8, 2012

can’t hug orphans

Today I have a social issue on my mind. Did you know that in California it is illegal for workers at orphanages to hug the children? I was shocked to hear this. I'm no expert, but conventional wisdom is that children ...

May 3, 2012

What are the flavors of light?

There are good reasons that almost everything we know about the distant universe came to us through measurements of light (electromagnetic radiation). Since light was present even at the birth of the universe, the field of astronomy predates just about ...

April 30, 2012

Panorama of ATA site

Sometime back, professional photographer Ron Barrett spent the day at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (site of the Allen Telescope Array) and worked up a beautiful panorama of the site: http://www.seti.org/node/1108 I love how much detail is available in this image (you ...

April 16, 2012

Hi Friends!

It has been almost a week, but I'm still high on my trip to AbSciCon (Astrobiology Science Conference), in Atlanta, GA. Funded by NASA, AbSciCon is held only bi-yearly, and brings together all sorts of people in astrobiology, like biologists, ...