The doctor is in…
Longtime readers who may recall that Brian May, guitarist for Queen since its formation (30 years ago), submitted his thesis for a Ph.D. in astrophysics will be delighted to know that the thesis has been published. One can now freely obtain and read May’s account of the population of tiny asteroids and space dust that cause the Zodiacal light.
The book, A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud (Springer and Canopus Publishing Ltd., 2008), is available at Amazon and other fine purveyors of print for $71.96.
May, who was awarded his Ph.D.last summer, and accepted a position as chancellor at a British university in November. Happily, the position of Chancellor at a British university is largely honorary and mildly ceremonial… May will be touring with Queen (Paul Rodgers having stepped in for the late Freddie Mercury) much of 2008-9… the tour is dubbed, only too appropriately, “The Rock the Cosmos Tour.”
As we listen to the music of the spheres, we might recall that it was on this date in 1861 that the U.S. government enacted the first “Income Tax” as part of the Revenue Act of 1861. The tax, which was levied on incomes over $800, was aimed at helping fund the Civil War. But the measure was so unpopular that it was short-lived– the government rescinded it in 1872… it didn’t reappear for decades.