Latest posts

Tackling the Intangible

Posted on 17 November 2013 by Athene Donald

A couple of weeks ago I attended a brief talk given by Baroness Ruth Deech at a careers evening for law students at Newnham College (all female). Her talk was followed by others from two recent graduates from the college who had moved into different branches of law. It was an interesting evening, not least to compare how the legal profession operat Continue reading →

Posted in Baroness Deech, Equality, Science Culture, women in medicine, Women in science, working environment | Comments Off on Tackling the Intangible

Mermaids, Museums … and Murder

Posted on 16 November 2013 by Henry Gee

Some of you will remember my gothic horror detective mystery romp By The Sea, first serialised on LabLit courtesy of Dr J. R. of Rotherhithe, and then turned into a book. It’s still available on Kindle and as a paperback, the Ideal Seasonal Gift for somebody or another.

Continue reading →
Posted in Apparitions, by the sea, Cromer, Lablit, sarah potter, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Mermaids, Museums … and Murder

The Flies of Memory

Posted on 13 November 2013 by Henry Gee

This is the tragic paradox of the pin-sharp: the problem with cameras is that your memory of a scene becomes condensed around that one snapshot and everything else fades. Your holiday, so fluid, so subtle, so weighted with memory, is condensed around a few frozen instants and the rest is forgotten. Memory is like that, you see – hazy, foggy, Continue reading →

Posted in borges, funes the memorious, ian watson, Science-fiction, the embedding, the flies of memory, the jonah kit, the martian inca, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on The Flies of Memory

Mill Hill Essays 2013

Posted on 12 November 2013 by Frank Norman

One of my more pleasurable annual tasks is producing the volume of Mill Hill Essays. I commmission between 5 and 10 essays, mostly from authors at the Institute, then edit them and oversee the production. Print copies of the essays are sent to various universities and libraries and miscellaneous others, and they are also published on our website.   Continue reading →

Posted in Communicating Science, Writing | Comments Off on Mill Hill Essays 2013

A New Pet

Posted on 12 November 2013 by Henry Gee

This afternoon I discovered this butterfly, in a somewhat sleepy state, on the windowsill behind my computer screen. IMG_7989 I didn’t have the heart to put it out of the window.

After I posted the picture on the soshul meeja, my friend J. L. Continue reading →

Posted in Apparitions, butterfly, climate change, Domesticrox, pets, soshul meeja | Comments Off on A New Pet

Blogging Briefly: a Guest Post from J. S. Watts

Posted on 12 November 2013 by Henry Gee

I’m seriously chuffed to be guesting on The End of The Pier Show. I once had a significant oil leak in Cromer (Well, I didn’t, you understand. My car did) and I’ve never quite got over it, but I’m not going to go into that here. That would count as only tangentially relevant distraction, of which, more later. J.S.Watts - cropped

Continue reading →
Posted in a darker moon, brevity, cats and other myths, j s watts, songs of steelyard sue, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Blogging Briefly: a Guest Post from J. S. Watts

The Ghost of Oneself on the Web

Posted on 11 November 2013 by Athene Donald

Comedians complain about it, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t too. They complain because U-tube, iPlayer etc mean that their jokes can’t be repeatedly recycled the way they were in the good old days. Once they’ve told one that’s actually funny it will lurk in the aether (or do I mean Cloud), pulled out by chance Googlers Continue reading →

Posted in accuracy, biography, Communicating Science, Science Culture, seminars, Uta Frith | Comments Off on The Ghost of Oneself on the Web

The Maison Des Girrafes Caption Competition #101

Posted on 10 November 2013 by Henry Gee

IMG_7988
The best caption will receive plaudits, approbation of one’s peers, and so on and so forth in like fashion. Here’s one to start you off – “Oh, Spiderman – I never thought you’d be as furry as that. Or such a messy kisser.”

Comments Off on The Maison Des Girrafes Caption Competition #101

Extrafunicular

Posted on 10 November 2013 by Henry Gee

If posting on this blog were not enough, I have also been writing things for other people, and other people have been writing things about me. The frequency of such extrafactual activity has been heightened by the propinquity of my Shameless Plug, but, that aside, one or two of you might wish to investigate some of these epipodia, were you to spare Continue reading →

Posted in Apparitions, brian clegg, coffee with a canine, desolation of smaug, discover magazine online, evolving thoughts, forbes, geoscientist, huffington post, john farrell, john wilkins, marc srour, nature, now appearing, ted nield, The Accidental Species, the page 99 test, the science of middle earth, tim radford, Toronto star, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Extrafunicular

Deeply felt experiences – musical memories

Posted on 9 November 2013 by Frank Norman

Some pieces of music bring back strong memories. You recall key moments when you have heard the music before, or great performances that you have witnessed or taken part in. Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem is a piece that brings back memories of one of the most intense experiences of my life.

Continue reading →
Posted in Music | Comments Off on Deeply felt experiences – musical memories