The literary links to the updated Boston MOS planetarium

Not often do we get to cross-post on our science and writing blogs. But today's Globe has a "Bibliophile" column on the reading habits of the director of the updated Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Science.  Also note that Alan Lightman, MIT astrophysicist and author of the mesmerizing Einstein's Dreams, helped write the script for to curret show. Leave it to Lightman to bring exoplanets to life in "Undiscovered Worlds: The Search Beyond Our Sun." 

The Zeiss Starmaster brings it all to you


Few are more excited than planetarium director David Rabkin, who is also the museum’s director for current science and technology. Rabkin, who describes himself as “an engineer at heart,” holds a doctorate in technology and innovation management from MIT. Originally from Milton, he lives in Cambridge.


I go through different science phases, punctuated by fun novels. I went through a phase where I read a lot of biology. I was a really good physics student but a terrible biology student. It didn’t make sense to me, and that drove me nuts. But a lot of current science and technology is about biology, so I started reading. I realized that when you look at cell biology, and genetics, and evolution, there’s this incredibly elegant logic to it. I finally found the “F = ma” of biology, and then it became fascinating.