APSU’s ‘Science on Tap’ returns December 3rd with ‘The Snake that Ate Guam’

Clarksville, TN – On Guam, a strange silence hangs over the Pacific island’s dense jungles. Birds don’t sing or call out to mates. They don’t flutter from branch to branch or shout at potential predators.

The jungles are eerily quiet because, more than half a century after an innocent looking tree snake arrived on Guam, the serpent devoured nearly all the island’s birds.

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APSU’s Science on Tap fills Strawberry Alley Ale Works’ Pilsner Room

Written by Kyle Watts

Clarksville, TN – On Tuesday, September 3rd, 2019, Austin Peay State University (APSU) kicked off its inaugural Science on Tap – a monthly lecture series that unites two great things, science and local brews – at Strawberry Alley Ale Works.

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APSU launches ‘Science on Tap’ September 3rd at Strawberry Alley Ale Works

Clarksville, TN – When Austin Peay State University’s Dr. J. Allyn Smith talks black holes, he likes to drop in lots of “fun stuff” and quirkiness.

Take, for instance, his description of a hypernova (which is basically supernova’s bigger and more energetic brother that forms a black hole inside its starry shell): “It becomes what we call a self-eating watermelon, the black hole eats the star from the inside out.”

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Austin Peay State University Physics Student visits National Lab, Discovers Quasar

Clarksville, TN – Quasars—massive black holes that emit large amounts of radiation—are among the brightest objects in the universe, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to identify.

For centuries, they’ve been mistaken for other shining celestial objects, and in recent years, astronomers had yet to accurately identify a certain one of these brilliant specks in the southern sky.

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