Monthly Archives: November 2025

Botanists in the Family

It is difficult to know where to begin with this post, since several strands have got intertwined. I guess the prompt for this is, as with my last post, the meeting at the Royal Society celebrating women from the past … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Ellen Wilmott, Erasmus Darwin, Francis Boott, Lucy Hardcastle, Women in science | Comments Off on Botanists in the Family

Where Were the Women?

I know that many people feel the Royal Society is a stuffy, white male institution, unwelcoming to women and other minorities, but I cannot agree. It may have had a long history of excluding women, but no more and, in … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Eleanor Ormerod, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Royal Society, Stella Butler, Women in science | Comments Off on Where Were the Women?

The Importance of Community

I mentioned the book by Jeffrey Abbott and Andrew Maynard, AI and the Science of Being Human, in a previous blogpost. I love its optimism about how all of us could work with AI without letting it take us over … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in AI, Brian Pippard, Ray Dolby Centre, Research, Science Culture, screens, tea break | Comments Off on The Importance of Community

Being Practical (Or Not)

Last week I attended a workshop on the future of practical science in schools at the Royal Society.  Driven in part by the findings of the 2023 Science Education Tracker, that students at secondary school were frustrated they had little … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Curriculum and Assessment Review, education, Science Education Tracker, teachers | Comments Off on Being Practical (Or Not)

Is That What Makes Me Human?

I have been reading the recently published book AI and the Art of Being Human by Jeffrey Abbott and Andrew Maynard. I found it a fascinating – and indeed optimistic – book, which prompted a lot of reflection, although not … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in AI, Anthony Maynard, memories, Peter Scott, Science Culture | Comments Off on Is That What Makes Me Human?

What I Read In October

Thomas Peermohamed Lambert: Shibboleth A campus novel for the febrile age of social media warfare, Peermohamed skewers the modern obsession with identity politics, and how intellectually overstuffed but emotionally immature undergraduates exploit modish ideas of Diversity and Inclusion for their … Continue reading Continue reading

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Who’s Afraid of Artificial Intelligence?

What follows is a review of Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares: If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies – it was going to be part of my monthly book blog but the review got so long I felt it should have … Continue reading Continue reading

Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Soares, Writing & Reading, Yudkowsky | Comments Off on Who’s Afraid of Artificial Intelligence?