ABOUT ME . . .
Ten second Tam
I'm an astrophysicist and an ultimate frisbee player. You'll usually find me living either in Brisbane, Australia, or in Copenhagen, Denmark.
LATEST NEWS . . .
See my Astrophysics Fun Page to check out some fun astronomy pages and my Astrophysics Highlights Page to see my latest astro news.
If you need to know more detail you can get a copy of my CV here.
PHOTOS
Through the lens
During 2007 I tried to post a picture of something that happened in my life each day. I was semi-successful at keeping it up to date. So if you want a snapshot (or several) of my life then check out Day In Life.
ASTROPHYSICS
What I do
Back in the late 90's, people cleverer than me used supernovae to measure how fast the universe is expanding. The aim was to see how much the expansion was slowing down due to gravity. Much to their surprise they discovered the expansion is actually speeding up, a fact that cannot be explained by any of our conventional physics. It means that either the universe is dominated by a kind of "dark energy" that has a some sort of anti-gravity --- or that Einstein's theory of general relativity is not the final story.
So I spend my days working as part of University of Queensland Astrophysics trying to figure out what this "dark energy" could be (searching for the dark side of the force).
During European summers I switch hemispheres to search for darkness during 18 hours of daylight daily at the Dark Cosmology Centre in Copenhagen.
A couple of Astro Links
- My research page.
- "Is the Universe Leaking Energy?" (Scientific American, 2010)
- "Misconceptions about the Big Bang" (Scientific American, 2005)
- PhD Thesis
- CV and List of publications
ULTIMATE
What is Ultimate?
Ultimate Frisbee is a team sport you play with a frisbee. You play 7-a-side on a rugby field (without the posts), and you score by catching the frisbee in the endzone (like scoring a touchdown). You're not allowed to run with the frisbee, so it involves passing to your teammates, and if you ever let the frisbee hit the ground then the other team gets it, going in the other direction.
It is non-contact and there are no referees -- the players make their own foul calls. Good sportsmanship is therefore key.
For a much better intro check out Above and Beyond's "Ultimate 101".