Category Archives: Science

Biochemical Futures

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Stephen

The fourth edition of Voet & Voet’s Biochemistry, which is currently the recommended undergraduate text on our degree program at Imperial College, weighs three thousand and thirty-nine point two four grams. It has one thousand four hundred and eighty-two pages … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

The Best Seminar?

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Stephen

What is the best seminar that you have ever attended? And what made it so good? I pondered this question after my name appeared on the list of speakers for our internal divisional seminar series this term. I thought that, … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Fun, Science | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

The Speed of X-rays

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Stephen

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 … Continue reading →

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Rings of Saturn

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Stephen

It has been a beautifully clear and sunny day – perfect weather for a barbecue. We dined and chatted with our guests as the afternoon turned to dusk and then the stars began to wink in the night sky. After … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Science | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Writing Science

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Stephen

Writing about science. It’s important. And not just because you could win some dosh from the Wellcome Trust. I tried to explain why (and a little bit about how) in a guest post on Grrlscientist’s blog today.

Posted in Communication, Science, Science & Media | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Sun Spot

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Stephen

I have been working my way around the solar system with my telescope. The moon was easy to spot. And Jupiter and Saturn were not so very difficult to find, though they proved to be beyond my photographic capabilities. Over the … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Science | Tagged , , , , | 16 Comments

Numb or Numbered?

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Stephen

It just doesn’t add up: why do so many people, including scientists, get stuck on the maths problem? The subject is on my mind because it was raised at a departmental meeting last week where I tried to argue that … Continue reading →

Posted in Maths, Science | Tagged , , , | 137 Comments

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