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Category Archives: History of Science
A day in Auschwitz
Last week I visited Auschwitz. I find myself hesitating to write or say anything because I can’t find the words to convey the horror of the place and, in any case, so much has already been written and said far … Continue reading
Posted in History of Science
1 Comment
The Huxley Question
Writing in The Observer a couple of weeks ago, Kenan Malik cast a sceptical eye over a report published by the history group at Imperial College that had been asked to reflect on “the current understanding and reception of the … Continue reading
Posted in History of Science
3 Comments
The Cathedral on the Marsh
I’ve already shared this video on Twitter and Facebook but wanted to post it here as a more permanent record. Two weeks ago I fulfilled the ambition, held since I had seen Nic Stacey’s and Jim Al-Khalili’s quite wonderful BBC documentary … Continue reading
Posted in History of Science, Science
Tagged Civilisation, Crossness, thermodynamics
Comments Off on The Cathedral on the Marsh
ICYMI No.7: a day in the life of a naked scientist
In case you missed it last week, I had a segment in the Naked Scientist’s 15th anniversary radio show. Or rather, three segments, based on a day-in-the-life-of-a-scientist piece that I wrote a few months back on the Guardian, that were … Continue reading
Posted in Communication, History of Science, ICYMI
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This week – reading, thinking and linking
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
Posted in Communication, History of Science, Science & Media, Science & Politics
Comments Off on This week – reading, thinking and linking
Digital culture: my so-called week
My week, my cultural week, started last Sunday when I found time to catch up with Radio 4’s five-part series on Dorothy Hodgkin, an extraordinary scientist who was brought vividly to life through readings of her letters. Hearing the words … Continue reading
Posted in History of Science, Science & Art, TV review
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Moon Boy
After splashdown at 4:51 pm on 24th July 1969 the Apollo 11 astronauts returning from the first moon landing had to don full-body Biological Isolation Garments before they could leave the conical command module that was bobbing in the Pacific Ocean. … Continue reading
The horror is in the detail
I recently came across a film on YouTube called ‘Unedited footage of the bombing of Nagasaki (silent)’. It is one of the dullest and most horrific things I have ever seen. The film shows US servicemen on Tinian island performing … Continue reading
The very interesting web of connections
The Royal Institution has made a rather lovely film about William and Lawrence Bragg, the father and son Nobel laureates who came up the method of structural analysis by X-ray crystallography around 100 years ago. The film is constructed around … Continue reading
Posted in History of Science, Protein Crystallography
Tagged Bragg, electrons, George Thomson, X-ray crystallography
Comments Off on The very interesting web of connections
The Royal Institution: not time to move on
Less than a week after the Royal Institution announced that it was contemplating the sale of its historic home in Albermarle Street, Nature published an editorial criticising the 200 year old organisation for having lost its science communication mojo in … Continue reading
A television programme about the second law of thermodynamics
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
Posted in History of Science, Science & Media, TV review
Tagged BBC, Entropy, history of science, jim Al Khalili
13 Comments
Science, it’s a bloody marvel
Michael Brooks has scratched beneath the glossy surface of science to write a revealing and thoroughly entertaining book about its practitioners. By cutting so close to the scientific bone that it spills blood, his “Free Radicals” departs violently from the … Continue reading
Posted in History of Science, Science & Politics, Scientific Life
Tagged Book review, Michael Brooks
1 Comment
