Category Archives: Science

Moon Boon

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Stephen

It cannot have escaped your attention this past weekend that the Earth was treated to a supermoon. The correct terminology for this felicitous event is a perigee syzygy, but the reasons for the interesting nomenclature need not detain us. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Blogging, History of Science, Science | Tagged , | 15 Comments

Don’t submit. Submit.

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Stephen

We came. We chanted. We lobbied. We petitioned. And in the end, thanks to the Science is Vital Campaign and the persuasive efforts of CaSE and the learned societies and captains of high-tech industry, the UK science budget was protected … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Here is a Man Who Stood Up

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Stephen

In many ways Travis Bickle, the disturbed taxi driver in Scorsese’s famous film, is a model of public engagement. For one thing, he really thinks about his audience. He rehearses in front of a mirror so that he will be … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Communication, Science | Tagged , , , , | 41 Comments

The Perutz Effect

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Stephen

I have Jim Franks of Newton TV to thank for the opportunity to sit around a table with some of the current scientists at the world-famous MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology to talk about the legacy of its founder, Max … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Protein Crystallography, Science, Science & Media | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Prize Your Imagination

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Stephen

On Wednesday last I was fortunate to find myself an outlier among the great and the good at the Wellcome Trust Image Awards for 2011, where hefty glass slabs were being handed out by Adam Rutherford as prizes to imaginative … Continue reading →

Posted in Protein Crystallography, Science | Tagged , | 8 Comments

An Inconsistent Truth?

Posted on February 13, 2011 by Stephen

The Science Museum in London is a national shrine to human ingenuity. Its existence is a testament to the value that our society places on inquiry and innovation, its worth paradoxically underscored by the fact that, even in these impecuious … Continue reading →

Posted in AltMed, History of Science, Science | Tagged , | 45 Comments

Small and Very Far Away

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Stephen

As Father Ted might have explained it to Dougal, this one is very small: Atom but that one is far away. Mars (NASA) And yet it is the distant planet and not the nearby atom that seems to excite the … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Protein Crystallography, Science | Tagged , , , | 54 Comments

Interesting Times

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Stephen

“May you live in interesting times”, goes the Chinese curse. Chinese scientists are certainly living in interesting times (as reported today in Nature) but they are unlikely to see it as a curse. The budget of the Chinese Academy of … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , | 26 Comments

The shove that dare not speak its name

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Stephen

The following is a commentary that has been published today (in a slightly edited form) in Chemistry and Industry. Only the excellent need apply. Such is the message on research funding from nobelist Sir Paul Nurse, incoming president of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , , , , | 42 Comments

The Importance of Being Confident

Posted on January 22, 2011 by Stephen

The government is worried about the economy and rightly so. It’s in a bit of a state. When Value Added Tax was raised by 2.5% to 20% at the turn of the year, there were nervous glances to see what … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Burying Pigs and Information

Posted on January 9, 2011 by Stephen

Ben Goldacre wrote a short blogpost today to bemoan the habit of many media outlets of not linking to the primary sources for their reports and headlines. He was referring to stories that have appeared today about Asian gangs abusing white … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Science & Media, Science & Politics | Tagged , , | 17 Comments

Joule’s Jewel

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Stephen

For the longest time I thought he was French. It’s the name — Joule; it sounds French and in my physics class at school no-one thought to explain otherwise. In fact, Joule was not even introduced as a name — … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Science | Tagged , , | 17 Comments