Brian May, guitarist for Queen, one of the greatest rock bands of all time, has been formally installed as a Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. May is a guitarist, sure, but he's also a real-live astrophysicist, getting his degree recently after a slight delay due to a career move involving music. But he is now an actual Chancellor, and was awarded "an honorary fellowship for his contribution to astronomy and services to the public understanding of science..." Very cool. His degree was in studying the radial motion of dust in the zodiacal light, and I can't say more because I couldn't find his paper on any online server. Anyone have a link? I did find a couple of book reviews of Bang! -- The Complete History of the Universe which he cowrote with my friend and blogger Chris Lintott. Maybe I'll pick up a copy whilst (!) I'm in the UK later this week. Anyway, congratulations to Dr. May! But it's interesting to wonder how many Brits have left behind a life of music for astrophysics... Tip o' the mortarboard to BABLoggee Chris Nicoll.
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