Category Archives: science

Where are all the aliens?

Where are they? Well, I think I know. I believe in aliens. I believe we aren’t alone in the universe, or even in the galaxy. And I am not alone. 52% of Brits and 54% of Americans agree. It’s 56% … Continue reading

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Vipassana – vaguely sensational.

Two weeks before Christmas I went on a 10 day silent retreat on a former farm in Hereford. Or, as one friend describes it, Meditation Boot Camp. It certainly was tough but now I’ve had a few weeks to recover … Continue reading

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The best essay on the meaning of life I’ve ever read.

As you may know I once asked every philosopher in the UK about the meaning of life. It was a slightly depressing experience. Only 22 out of a possible?644 replied . Those replies were great. Being philosophers they didn’t actually … Continue reading

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Two excellent physics explanations.

I have just come across to these two incredibly lucid accounts of two key features of modern physics. Worth sharing Semiconductors – Mark Miodownik Silicon is a poor conductor of electricity because all of its four outer electrons are bound up … Continue reading

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Emily Dickinson proved wrong by science twins!

Emily Dickinson was a remarkable genius but one of her most famous observations has just been blown sky high by a pair of 14 year old twins. Emily wrote: CXXVI THE BRAIN is wider than the sky, For, put them … Continue reading

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Deja vu.. tous

A barely believable story about a slightly deranged American intelligence worker who goes AWOL knowing everything? Haplessly pursued by the NSA & GCHQ? I’ll clearly never work in intelligence because it has taken me until now to rememeber that I … Continue reading

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Can’t see a Coelacanth? Me neither

These designs just popped into my head. Will someone please make them for me? Sadly, it turns out that these beasts aren’t just ellusive, they are now also really endangered 🙁 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth

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A physicist’s take on the meaning of life

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist and a science communicator. He’s a cosmologist with a particular interest in understanding what time is. He is also a vocal atheist who spends a fair bit of his own time arguing with philosophers … Continue reading

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From Disney Imagineer to killing thousands of mice with cancer

It seems unlikely that supergenius Danny Hillis was unhappy with his time as a Disney ‘Imagineer’ . Where, according to this week’s Nature, he got to do very cool things like design themepark rides. But I wonder what Mickey thinks about … Continue reading

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The Quietest Place on Earth Will Drive You Insane Within 45 Minutes

This Gizmodo story makes a nice follow up to saturday’s prose poem. Maybe that wasn’t fiction after all? There’s a small room in Minnesota that blocks out 99% of all external sound. That’s an impressive number! Also impressive: nobody can … Continue reading

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For dolphins, seafood tastes salty.

New research in top science journal PNAS suggests that carnivores can’t taste very much. This is particularly bad news for dolphins. Humans and many other mammals have five types of taste receptors – sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami (savoury … Continue reading

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Comfort or Food? The Harlow Monkey Love Song

Anyone who gets through first year psychology will be familiar with Harry Harlow and his cruel experiments with rhesus monkeys. Little orphan monkeys were given the choice between a wire surrogate mother who provided food and a terry cloth surrogate … Continue reading

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What Einstein really thought about God..

“The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is … Continue reading

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Flying spaghetti monster photographed for the first time

For those that doubted the existence of the flying spaghetti monster, scientists have managed to photograph him. And the reality is more amazing than you can have imagined.. He really is out there floating in space spanning the whole universe. … Continue reading

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More top croc news

Now the exciting world of crocodile classification has just become twice as complicated. It used to be that it was easy to tell crocodiles from alligators. If you were in Africa it was a crocodile. Now it turns out that … Continue reading

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