Category Archives: History of Science

The Royal Institution: not time to move on

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Stephen

Less than a week after the Royal Institution announced that it was contemplating the sale of its historic home in Albermarle Street, Nature published an editorial criticising the 200 year old organisation for having lost its science communication mojo in … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Open Access | Tagged , | 1 Comment

A television programme about the second law of thermodynamics

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Stephen

CP Snow must be doing cartwheels in his grave. The BBC has made a beautiful, intelligent film about the second law of thermodynamics. You only have until Tuesday 30th Oct* to catch it on iPlayer and you should. Presented by … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Science & Media, TV review | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Science, it’s a bloody marvel

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Stephen

Michael Brooks has scratched beneath the glossy surface of science to write a revealing and thoroughly entertaining book about its practitioners. By cutting so close to the scientific bone that it spills blood, his “Free Radicals” departs violently from the … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Science & Politics, Scientific Life | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Moon Boon

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Stephen

It cannot have escaped your attention this past weekend that the Earth was treated to a supermoon. The correct terminology for this felicitous event is a perigee syzygy, but the reasons for the interesting nomenclature need not detain us. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Blogging, History of Science, Science | Tagged , | 15 Comments

The Perutz Effect

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Stephen

I have Jim Franks of Newton TV to thank for the opportunity to sit around a table with some of the current scientists at the world-famous MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology to talk about the legacy of its founder, Max … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Protein Crystallography, Science, Science & Media | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

An Inconsistent Truth?

Posted on February 13, 2011 by Stephen

The Science Museum in London is a national shrine to human ingenuity. Its existence is a testament to the value that our society places on inquiry and innovation, its worth paradoxically underscored by the fact that, even in these impecuious … Continue reading →

Posted in AltMed, History of Science, Science | Tagged , | 45 Comments

Joule’s Jewel

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Stephen

For the longest time I thought he was French. It’s the name — Joule; it sounds French and in my physics class at school no-one thought to explain otherwise. In fact, Joule was not even introduced as a name — … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Science | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Snapshots of 2010

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Stephen

I wasn’t going to do a review of the year’s blogposts but, on the off-chance that the recent move to the shiny new site at Occam’s Typewriter has attracted some new readers, I thought I would provide a brief guide … Continue reading →

Posted in AltMed, Astronomy, Blogging, History of Science, Libel Reform, Protein Crystallography, Science, Science & Politics, TV review | 5 Comments

Patrick Blackett’s Science was Vital

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Stephen

Please be patient while I experiment with audio to drum up support for the “Science is Vital campaign”:http://scienceisvital.org.uk/. It will only take two minutes and forty-nine seconds. Listen! Listen! Thank you for listening. Update (Sun 26th Sept): For those of … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Science & Politics | 14 Comments

A molecule of life and death

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Stephen

Walter Clement Noel was famous in the wrong circles for the wrong reasons. He died in Grenada in 1916 aged just 32. Over fifty years later, in the first decade of my life, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was far and … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Protein Crystallography | 18 Comments

Faster than a Rocket

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Stephen

I am pleased to be able to announce that, having taken up jogging at the turn of the year, I can now run faster than a rocket. Well, strictly speaking, I can now run faster that the Rocket–or rather a … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science | 5 Comments

I have discovered Jupiter

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Stephen

I am 46 years of age and I have just discovered Jupiter. This is a surprising revelation, even to me. I have strong memories of being a child besotted with things astronomical. Looking back now, however, I have to wonder … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, History of Science | 34 Comments