by Len Fisher | 25 Oct 2016 | Mini Stories from Science
In an earlier post (https://lenfisherscience.com/98-necessary-mysteries/) I wrote about necessary mysteries – concepts and ideas that are beyond our direct experience, but which scientists have been forced to accept in order to make sense of that experience. Note that... 
by Len Fisher | 23 Oct 2016 | Mini Stories from Science
I must have been just nine or ten years old when I discovered the American magazine “Popular Mechanics” in our local library. It was the stuff of dreams. My real world, where my parents could not afford to buy me a bicycle, let alone own a car themselves, was replaced... 
by Len Fisher | 23 Sep 2016 | IgNobel Prize, News, Stray Thoughts
It may sound ridiculous to argue that a spoof IgNobel Prize could ever have more value than an actual Nobel. Of course, when it comes to real science, the Nobels are still the pinnacle. But perhaps, as I pointed out in this interview on the BBC World Service recorded... 
by Len Fisher | 6 Sep 2016 | Mini Stories from Science, News
A great deal of nonsense is currently being spouted by people who believe that the days of unfettered “fundamental,” “pure,” “blue-sky” research are over – or, at least, that they ought to be, and that scientists should come out into the “real world,” whatever that... 
by Len Fisher | 16 Aug 2016 | Stray Thoughts
In the days when I was an enthusiast for competition bridge, I read a book by the British writer Victor Mollo which featured a character called The Hideous Hog. One sentence from that book, describing the Hog’s excuse for making a mistake, has always stuck in my mind... 
by Len Fisher | 11 Aug 2016 | Stray Thoughts
Rabelais’s rumbustious romp with the brief title The Heroic Deeds of Gargantua and Pantagruel was written in the sixteenth century, with the first part being written in 1532. I am lucky enough to own a limited edition illustrated by the Australia artist Francis... 
by Len Fisher | 30 Jul 2016 | Mini Stories from Science, News, Planning for Life's Crises: Media and Writing
If you think that science, and scientific thinking, have little to do with the rough-and-tumble of the real world, think again – and take a look at this wonderful paper by a group of psychologists and mathematicians from the Cornell-Princeton-Yale triangle... 
by Len Fisher | 26 Jul 2016 | Mini Stories from Science, News
A recent article provides an exciting glimpse into one way that scientists think, although you might not think it is so exciting at first glimpse. Let the scientists speak for themselves: Neon is an abundant element in the atmosphere, but it is much scarcer on Earth... 
by Len Fisher | 2 Jul 2016 | News, Planning for Life's Crises: Media and Writing, Stray Thoughts
July, 2016 After hearing a well-informed talk by the experienced Nepal road engineer Bleddyn Griffiths about his experience of the Nepal earthquake disaster, I suggested that we write a joint letter about both the science and the realities, which are linked in a more... 
by Len Fisher | 25 Jun 2016 | Game Theory & You: Media and Writing, Mini Stories from Science, News
July 25th, 2016 The result of the recent UK referendum on whether to stay in or to leave Europe has come as a shock to many of us. More than one correspondent has asked me “I thought there was this thing called group intelligence which said that, the larger the group,... 
by Len Fisher | 16 Jun 2016 | Food & Gastronomy: Media and Writing, News, Stray Thoughts
At Theodore Zeldin’s suggestion, supported and promoted by Paul Levy, here is a letter that I and 59 others signed, with food-related reasons for Britain to stay firmly in the EU. Sir, As people engaged in the food world, concerned about the cultural,... 
by Len Fisher | 30 May 2016 | Planning for Life's Crises: Media and Writing, Stray Thoughts
Here is the self-explanatory text of a letter sent to the Sydney Morning Herald, but not accepted for publication. Perhaps I should have been rougher, because the original draft referred to the exposed backside as being in need of a thorough kicking. “The... 
by Len Fisher | 25 May 2016 | Food & Gastronomy: Media and Writing
In celebration of the “offal” theme at the 2016 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, here is the wonderful brain cutlet story from Lawrence Durrell’s Prospero’s Cell, a semi-fictional diary of his time on Corfu. The Count is “Count D” (probably an invented character,... 
by Len Fisher | 14 May 2016 | Mini Stories from Science, Planning for Life's Crises: Media and Writing
Early in 2015 I was invited, together with co-authors from the International Risk Governance Council, to write a review on the above topic for a special issue of the journal Ecological Economics. The referees liked the writing, but wanted us to add more economics... 
by Len Fisher | 6 May 2016 | Mini Stories from Science, News
My latest 15 min radio broadcast in the Ockham’s Razor series begins with the story of why Einstein decided not to wear socks (see Mini Story #7), but goes on to encompass how we can make the best decisions in our complex world and how Governments and big... by Len Fisher | 1 May 2016 | Mini Stories from Science
It is said that Pierre Curie could never enter his own laboratory while an experiment was in progress, because his body had become so radioactive that his mere presence discharged the sensitive electrometers. It was while pondering this story that I came up with my... by Len Fisher | 28 Apr 2016 | News, Stray Thoughts
PERSONAL BACKGROUND I am a practising scientist, writer and broadcaster who has spent the last two decades working to make science more accessible and more a part of our culture by showing how scientists think about everyday problems, from the trivial to the profound... 
by Len Fisher | 14 Apr 2016 | News, Stray Thoughts
Books To Read Before University Thursday, April 14th, 2016 The Times Education Supplement and the Times Higher Education Supplement have combined to produce a feature article on books that students should read before going to university... 
by Len Fisher | 23 Feb 2016 | Mini Stories from Science, Planning for Life's Crises: Media and Writing
In story fourteen I argued that science, like sex, thrives on diversity. I quoted from Peter Medawar, and the quote is worth repeating: There is no such thing as a Scientific Mind. Scientists are people of very dissimilar temperaments doing different things in very... 
by Len Fisher | 17 Feb 2016 | News, Stray Thoughts
Here is my article for the Times Higher Education Supplement on how I worked out the closeness of my creative links to the mathematician Paul Erdös, the actor Kevin Bacon, and the heavy metal music group Black Sabbath, and found myself to be in the same category as... 