Readers of this blog will know that I am not the only scientist in the Elliott family, nor the best one.
My father Gerald, who pops up occasionally on this blog in the comments, or even from my mentioning him in the posts, (example here) published his first scientific paper back in 1957.
He emailed me earlier today to say that what he calls “ Continue reading
When I was about five years old, I remember reading a book in the school library called You Will Go To The Moon. This was the 1960s, when the Space Race was being run, and everyone was space crazy (well, by ‘everyone’, I mean five-year-old boys in South London). I still remember slogging to Woolworth’s with 5/11- saved from pocket Continue reading
A little while ago I wrote about those committee members who are ubiquitous but who never would be missed. The cast of characters I described before were those prevalent on grant-giving committees, for instance, and so tended to be a bunch of relative strangers to each other. The dynamics of internal committees, where people tend to know one anothe Continue reading
Well, that’s over. What’s ‘that’, I hear you cry? Ah, well, ‘that’ was the referendum last week in which the voters in the U. of K. were invited to decide whether they’d like to elect members of parliament in the way they do now, or by the Alternative Vote system. Continue reading
On averting a compost disaster
I think everyone should have a wormery but that is probably just because I own one. Its great for compost and easy to use even if you don’t have a garden you can compost away in your kitchen and make your houseplants happy, or just dump it in your neighbour’s garden or in green spaces. You can do this wit Continue reading
About a year ago I had a mid-life crisis. Now, popular wisdom has it that men having mid-life crises should buy red sports cars and have affairs with younger women. As for the first – I am quite happy with my old but tolerably reliable Volvo 850 (135,000 miles and counting). As for the second – well, Mrs Crox wouldn’t let me. Even Continue reading
It can’t just be me, surely…
I don't have TIME to make a better graph! GAAAH!
This time tomorrow I’ll be on a 10 hour flight to London, where I will see my sister for the first time in more than two years, and meet up with old friends and new! Continue reading
I was back at the Diamond Light Source today — the synchrotron that we use to blast protein crystals with X-rays to figure out the structures of protein molecules. The beamlines at the synchrotron where we do our experiments have some very fancy kit and, in explaining the apparatus to one of my students, I was reminded of how much things have chang Continue reading
The low numbers of female role models to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers is often cited as a major problem in encouraging girls into science and then keeping them there. Comments on this blog have also remarked on this problem. The UKRC created the ‘Women of Outstanding Achievement Awards’ in a move to create powerful port Continue reading
