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Brian May, Rock Legend, Publishes His Thesis
Posted by
kdawson
on Sat Aug 02, 2008 05:45 PM
from the eyes-just-like-a-laser-beam dept.
from the eyes-just-like-a-laser-beam dept.
A year ago we took note when Brian May, guitarist for Queen for the last 30 years, submitted his thesis for a Ph.D. in astrophysics. The news now is that the thesis has been published. You, too, can read all about the population of tiny asteroids and space dust that cause the Zodiacal light. The completed thesis appears as the book "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" (Springer and Canopus Publishing Ltd., 2008), available at Amazon for $71.96. May was awarded his Ph.D. last summer and accepted a position as chancellor at a British university in November.
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Brian May, Rock Legend, Soon-To-Be Astrophysicist 169 comments
xPsi writes "Brian May, the guitarist for the legendary rock band Queen (age 60), has finally decided to submit his Ph.D. thesis in astrophysics. The title is 'Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.' From the article: 'May was studying astrophysics at Imperial College when he formed Queen with singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor in 1970. He dropped his doctorate research into interstellar dust as the band met with increasing success.' And, hey, if this whole Rock-n-Roll thing doesn't pan out, at least he'll have something to fall back on."
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Too pricey (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, but it didn't that 35 years!
Actually I went to his Imperial College lecture on the subject, and he was well into it.
Sadly not being a physicist I was initially more interested in that he was using Powerpoint on a Macbook Pro to present the material. But it all looked good, graphs and explanation were all there.
Glad the guy could finish the PhD he started way back then!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Authors usually don't choose those prices, and a price like that generally reflects a low confidence that anyone besides libraries will purchase this work. In this case it seems like a strategic error; I bet there's a huge market for this among fans of his music if it were say $25. But I don't see how that market can be very large at this price point. I suppose once they notice interest in it they might consider releasing it in paperback. But a $71 price tag is generally not something an author wants to
Re:Too pricey (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
So tell him where to stick that fancy label.
Somehow I doubt May has been sleeping on any sidewalks recently...
</inside-joke>
Rock music (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rock music (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Mercury or Uranus. Maybe both.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe. I'd heard calls to make scientists into rockstars, but never rockstars into scientists!
Re: (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_Goes_To_College [wikipedia.org]
Milo from the Descendents got his doctorate in Biochemistry.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There's also Greg Graffin [wikipedia.org] of Bad Religion, too. Life Sciences professor at UCLA.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Richard Feynman was a pretty serious bongo drummer.
Full thesis title (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Full thesis title (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder if he used a radio-ga-ga telescope to get his data?
Parent
Re:Full thesis title (Score:5, Funny)
The rotation of oscillating rotational planets, as influenced by female homo sapiens with large gluteal regions.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The rotation of oscillating rotational planets, as influenced by female homo sapiens with large gluteal regions.
Fat-bottomed Girls to the less verbose-minded.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm so glad that there's always someone to explain all these liberal egg-head jokes around here to me.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Unnecessary. Open your eyes, look up to the skies, and seeeee...
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
No, it was "Fat-Bottomed Girls, They Make the Rockin' World Go 'Round: A Study of Possible Causes of Gravity."
(TOTALLY stolen from UserFriendly, go upmod that site if you like this comment)
Two down, two to go (Score:5, Funny)
Now all he needs to do is learn how to do brain surgery and start making movies.
If you don't get the joke, rent this one:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086856/ [imdb.com]
and watch the extended version
Professors (Score:5, Funny)
His astrophysicist professors kept arguing with him that despite his assertions, fat-bottomed girls did not make the world go round.
Re:Professors (Score:5, Funny)
However, it appears that travelling at the speed of light would make a supersonic man out of you.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Not in vacuum, though.
Dedicatory (Score:4, Funny)
Checking astro-ph... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
He isn't going to publish it on a public source because he is
following the advice of everyone on Slashdot and adding some form of
value added feature to his music. At $71 a print he can make enough
money to support his touring habit and get all the money that the
labels never paid out from their lawsuits-to-protect-the-artists.
Think of it as a very expensive tour shirt except that has a lot more /end insane_justification
text on it and you can't get it on a tour.
Good for him (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure beats getting coked out and dying in a gutter like some other rock legends.
Re:Good for him (Score:5, Funny)
As someone going for their PhD, I have to wonder if it actually does.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
As someone with a PhD, I can assure you that it doesn't. Posted anonymously for obvious reasons.
D'oh!
And he still plays! (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
What? No Rick Roll?
Professor ? Not yet (Score:2)
Not until he can build a timemachine.
Beyond impressed (Score:4, Interesting)
To an opera singer who is wading into comp. sci. / AI / brain science (and rapidly getting submerged, I must admit), this is rather inspiring.
Come on, Neil Peart! Don't let the guitarists get all the PhD's!
Re:Beyond impressed (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
WIth a cool doctoral dissertation like that (Score:5, Funny)
My opinion (Score:3, Informative)
I didn't read the article, but Brian May is one of the greatest unsung guitar heroes still alive.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It's very easy to make the case for May being "unsung"
-First and foremost, Queen is arguably the most successful and ignored band in the United States. Yes, they own the Rock Anthem chart and "we are the champions" is played to death at every major sporting event (C'mon, can't they try "February stars" by the Foo Fighters at the super bowl? just once? ), but in terms of album sales? Queen is so far down the list it's pathetic. Their worldwide sales were disproportionate to their US sales from 1975-ish on. O
w00t! (Score:3, Interesting)
He's the chancellor for MY university [ljmu.ac.uk].
Sadly, it's the only good thing I can say about said university, but as a massive Queen fan, that's good enough for me!
Rock legend becoming a PhD? (Score:4, Insightful)
Now a PhD becoming a rock legend on the other hand. That would be news! Becoming a rock legend is not an ordinary everyday occurrence.
Obligatory Simpson's (Score:4, Funny)
Homer: "Rock stars- they know everything!"
Not bad... (Score:3)
The real question is... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The real question is... (Score:5, Funny)
Is Brian May a LaTeX user? Perhaps he could write a song about it.
I Want to Break Free?
Chinese Torture?
I'm Going Slightly Mad?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps if Freddie had been, he'd still be here now...
Oh, "LaTeX", not... you know...
I think... (Score:5, Funny)
...he's going to be the only person in academic history to actually generate any income from selling his Ph.D thesis.
He's no Buckaroo Bonzai (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I moved from Ireland to California to work at a company called myplay.com and later moved to Napster. Now I'm at imeem.com
I still entertain some deep down belief that one day I might return to astrophysics and submit my thesis, maybe if one of these internet music companies finally make me some money.
(of course, even if I stopped work tomorrow I now have young kids to take care of...)
You may know Astrophysics, Quarks, Blackholes and more, but you'd think it's very simple to figure out which companies make money off of music via the Internet. Give me an A! Give me a P! Give me another P! Give me a L! Give me an E! What's that spell? MONEY.
Besides there are quite a few Astrophysicists, including former SETI folks that work at Apple so you won't be the only one orbiting the campus.