Sirius Enigmas is the name of the enterprise we started in 2015 to disseminate some of the science, art and design ideas and objects that have arisen from a lifetime of physics research and interests in art, mathematics and visual perception by Kenneth Brecher (currently Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Physics at Boston University), with support from innovation strategist, Kaz Brecher (Curious Catalyst).

The name Sirius Enigmas was the title of a paper that Ken Brecher wrote in 1977 when he was on the physics department faculty at M.I.T. about the astronomy, physics and history of the brightest star in the sky - Sirius A (the Dog Star) and its White Dwarf companion star Sirius B (the “pup”). The article first appeared in the December 1977 issue of the M.I.T. alumni magazine Technology Review (Volume 80, No. 2, p 52 - 63) and was reprinted in the book Astronomy of the Ancients (K. Brecher and M. Feirtag, eds.), M.I.T. press, 1981.

So why an enterprise called Sirius Enigmas? Our first designs are a set of dynamical objects (spinning tops) that can spin and precess and produce marvelous physical as well as optical effects - just as many collapsed stars like White Dwarfs and Neutrons Stars do. In fact, it was the teaching in introductory level university astronomy courses that led to the fascination (indeed, obsession) with such objects – and the desire to share these objects with students of every age from 5 to 105.

In what follows, we have included some PDFs of papers about these objects. There are also links to websites that show the dynamical aspects of their behaviors and a movie showing the properties of many types of tops.  And there are also links to where you can get your own (while they last!). Please feel free to contact Kenneth Brecher using the form below if you have questions about any of them.