Category Archives: Uncategorized

Published literature is not free. To be more precise, the process of turning your treasured manuscript from a Word document (LaTeX nerds can shut up right now) through peer review, editing, XML-ification, whatever, to what you hold in your hand … Continue reading →

Just how annoying is Luke Skywalker? Man, I’d like to fetch him one across the self-righteous chops. And this whole rebellion schtick? Just what’s going on there? I mean, you’ve got a galaxy with peace and order and what seems … Continue reading →

Not long ago I was talking about Twitter, and how it seems to have grown up. I said that it’s no longer about telling people what you had for breakfast, but has turned into a meaningful communication tool. Web 3.0, … Continue reading →

I’ve got to give a talk tomorrow. In the best traditions of scientific conferencing the abstract submitted a month ago bears little relationship to what I’m actually going to say. (And in that tradition: What am I going to say? … Continue reading →

It was nearly a month ago that David Attenborough and I went to see a preview of the Jon Amiel film Creation. Well, I say that, but there were 398 other people there too. And I didn’t actually get to … Continue reading →

So there I was, desperately trying to get on top of my nuclear inbox (i.e. it had exceeded critical mass) when the head developer came up to me and says ‘Do we really need an evaluation of an 1866 paper, … Continue reading →

You might be forgiven for thinking that Hogg was the only character in my high school chemistry class. Indeed, sometimes I was forced to make my own entertainment: such as the time I poured a glass of water over the … Continue reading →

Can you tell what it is, yet? These mornings, my alarm runs ahead of the Earth turning to bring the sun above the Thames; and the sky is already dark by the time I emerge from the Tube in the … Continue reading →

It’s an indication of the length of my personal ‘to-do’ list that, though I managed to see and even review the new movie about Charles Darwin, I’ve only just got around to uploading my photos of the Thames Festival. Jazz … Continue reading →

In Soviet Russia, breakfast tweets YOU I follow a few people on Twitter, from a total of three accounts (which we might class as personal, business and hobby, I guess). Some of them are kind enough to follow me back. … Continue reading →