Category Archives: Science & Media

Meeting David Attenborough at the Royal Institution

Posted on 5 March 2016 by Stephen

On Wednesday of this past week I found myself in the presence of royalty and felt quite giddy. It happened at a Royal Institution shindig to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first televised broadcast of their world-famous Christmas lectures. … Continue reading →

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This week – reading, thinking and linking

Posted on 7 February 2015 by Stephen

This past week I have been doing so much reading and writing for work that there has been no time to prepare anything substantial enough for a proper blog post, even if I have been stirred by the excessive protests … Continue reading →

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Prize-winning video

Posted on 6 December 2014 by Stephen

Well this is nice. The Celebrating Crystallography video made last year by the Royal Institution, which I narrated and helped to script-edit, has won the the EuroScience New Media award. Full details are available on the RI blog but it’s great to see … Continue reading →

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A television programme about the second law of thermodynamics

Posted on 20 October 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 →

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What is it like to be a Scientist?

Posted on 19 September 2012 by Stephen

It is a year to the day since the release of my film, “I’m a Scientist“, in which six different scientists talk openly about their lives in the laboratory and what makes them tick. The aim of the film is … Continue reading →

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Here goes something: Occam’s Typewriter cornered

Posted on 9 August 2012 by Stephen

Well this is nice. Today Occam’s Typewriter opens a new cornershop, so to speak, at the Guardian. For me, this closes a social media circle that started over four years ago because I can trace my entry to the scientific … Continue reading →

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Rubicon

Posted on 19 June 2012 by Stephen

This is a big deal for me: my first ever article in New Scientist – a magazine that I read in the library in Ballymena as a teenager. Pardon me for preening a little. What’s it about?

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Hawking with Dinosaurs

Posted on 3 April 2012 by Stephen

Here is a ‘paper‘ that I think would not be accepted by PLoS ONE and yet it was the subject of a report on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning, arguably the nation’s premier morning news show. … Continue reading →

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The road well trodden

Posted on 14 March 2012 by Stephen

Scientists should do this. Journalists should do that. And eventually we will live in a world where the media reporting of science achieves perfection. At least that is the hypothesis.

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The past, The future and The Guardian

Posted on 16 October 2011 by Stephen

This week I got to visit a part of London that is for me a hallowed place – the offices of The Guardian newspaper. I was participating in a workshop for the people who had been short-listed for the Wellcome … Continue reading →

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