Bad Astronomy

Behind the Nobel

Steve Maran is an astronomer and an author– he wrote Astronomy for Dummies and a host of other books. It is not an exaggeration at all to say I owe my career to Steve; I gave a brief synopsis of the story in my book’s acknowledgements page, and someday I’ll write the whole story down. He’s the press officer for the American Astronomical Society, so he knows just about every astronomer in the country, as well as every science journalist. A better connected astronomer would be hard to find!

Steve is also great writer, and when you put this together with his knowing everyone, you get a wonderful article about the story behind the latest Nobel prize for physics. I love stories that talk about the people behind the science, and Steve has some very good stuff in that article. There’s even a Seinfeld connection! He is truly master of his domain.