Stray Thoughts
Rabelais in the modern world
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 J....
What Nepal really needs to do about landslip disasters
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...
Letter to “Times,” Thursday June 16 (2016), re food and Brexit.
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, nutritional and...
The Great Barrier Reef is in great danger
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 Government...
My submission to the House of Commons inquiry on science communication
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...
Books To Read Before Going To University
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...
Are you a polymath? What’s your Erdös-Bacon-Sabbath number?
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...
The real dangers of Australia
Many of our European friends have expressed apprehension at the idea of visiting Australia on account of the ferocious sharks, poisonous snakes, spiders and jellyfish, etc. But the real problems lie elsewhere: Some birds laugh at you: Others look sideways...
Where did “Rock-Paper-Scissors” originate? Well, Nature started it all.
I recently had an inquiry from a Russian website wanting to know where the game "Rock, Paper, Scissors" originated. Probably they asked me because I had written a best-selling book "Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life," which was in fact not about the...
Australian politicians need to understand how science can REALLY be made profitable
The Australian Government is seriously considering radical changes to research funding where the major criterion would be the potential applications of a project, rather than its scientific value and rigour. This crazy idea, so intuitively appealing to politicians,...
Will Turnbull reverse the cuts?
Nov 4, 2015 Here is the text of an open letter (submitted to Sydney Morning Herald but unpublished) to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, drafted by me on behalf of the Royal Society of New South Wales. In a recent speech, Turnbull promised to “invest in...
Avoid major disasters by welcoming minor change
November 4, 2015 My World View article “Avoid major disasters by welcoming minor change” has now been published in Nature (Vol.527, p.9). Here is the link: http://www.nature.com/news/avoid-major-disasters-by-welcoming-minor-change-1.18718 The full article cannot be...
My defense of basic science in the Wall Street Journal
Following Matt Ridley's ill-informed claim in the Wall Street Journal ((“The Myth of Basic Science,” Review, Oct. 24) that basic science doesn't really need government support because most of it emerges from technology anyway, I essayed a rebuttal with my friend and...
A heavyweight philosophical encounter
I was never a particular admirer of the Oxford philosopher A.J.Ayer, but after coming across this story I may be beginning to change my mind:
The tale of a clever (and vengeful) electric eel
Electric eels are clever sods. Horizontal strands of nervous tissue set up a situation where the head becomes positive, the tail negative, and a potential difference of hundreds of volts in between. A recent paper in Current Biology (cf...
How quickly can Zombies spread?
Here's how quickly zombies could spread across the United States (http://mattbierbaum.github.io/zombies-usa/). It's just a quirky model for the spreading of different types of infection, and you can run the simulation for yourself. Think how good it would be if...
What scientists need to know about communicating with journalists
Several colleagues have drawn my attention to a blog by Pete Warden on how scientists should talk to journalists (http://petewarden.com/2015/09/27/how-to-talk-to-journalists/). Having had the experience on many occasions, and having worked out my own set of rules, I...
The birth of something small
“Whatever happened to colloid science? Has it been totally supplanted by the young upstart known as nanoscience? Or is it still with us, lurking in the background, perhaps even preparing for a comeback?” In my Chemistry World article The Birth of Something Small...