Think Like a Scientist
Is There Any Point to ‘Frivolous’ Academic Research?
BBC News Magazine Denise Waterman, writing for BBC News Magazine, puts the arguments for and against, with my work on the perfect cheese sandwich as a prime example. My own argument is simple: if I can open a door to the world of science by showing how scientists...
Radio Interview: Junk Maths
BBC Radio 4 On the programme More or Less I debated with Simon Singh (author of Fermat’s Last Theorem) about his assertion that the media are doing severe damage to the image of mathematics through the publication of “junk” equations for such things as the best...
Radio Interview: Advanced Biscuit Dunking
BBC Radio Wales An interview about the new, sweet-potato based, infinitely dunkable biscuit.
A Dunkable Delight, the Sweet Potato Biscuit
Daily Mail (London) (and many other newspapers) Felice Tocchini has created a biscuit which he claims can survive up to a minute in a hot drink before disintegrating into a sodden mess. This smashes the current record of 25.5 seconds for a chocolate digestive…The...
Bristol’s Cleverest People
Venue, 13–20 March 2009 An interview with Bristol’s Venue magazine that I am afraid I didn’t take very seriously, flattering though the appellation on "polymath" was! My answer to "What's the cleverest thing you've ever done" was "Marry an English woman". View page...
The Mathematics of Shopping
Mail on Sunday The Mail on Sunday "Style" editor requested an equation for whether or not to buy expensive designer clothes. After some hesitation, I decided that there was something sensible that I could say and which would get at least a few readers thinking about...
Chocolate Digestive is Nation’s Favourite Dunking Biscuit
Telegraph (London) The dunking story just rolls on and on! Here it has resurfaced in the Telegraph (London).
Radio Talk: The Many Uses of Petroleum
BBC World Service We need petroleum for a lot more than just fuel.
Radio Interview: The Greatest Experiments
BBC “Today” programme A recreation of Robert Millikan’s famous “oil drop” experiment, in which he measured the charge of a single electron by watching how the movement of oil drops sprayed into an electric field changed as they picked up randm charges from the air....
Radio Interview: Science Fantastic
U.S. Talk Radio Network An interview with internationally renowned theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku on how to make science more accessible to the public.
Radio Talk: Communicating Science
“Ockham’s Razor”, ABC Radio National (Australia) My efforts to communicate science are often hampered by the fact that so many perfectly intelligent people are so ignorant about the basic principles of science... Listen to audio | Read transcript
Popular Science: Four Way Interview
An interview for the website popularscience.co.uk, May 2007 www.popularscience.co.uk/biographies/fisher.htm www.popularscience.co.uk/features/feat29.htm Our four-way interviews give a quick insight into the current thinking of a popular science author. Len Fisher is...
Bubble Shapes
New Scientist I was washing the dishes when I noticed that the bubbles in a splodge of soapy water on the counter had a very regular structure. The bubbles, all small and identical in size, had arranged themselves in patches of hexagonal lattices, very like a single...
TV Presenter: Doughnut Dunking
"Madlabs", National Geographic Television A very interesting programme where I dip a giant biscuit in a bucket of tea, pull people in off the street to test the scientific approach to dunking in an Australian cafe, and measure the strength of biscuits by piling apples...
A Random Walk Through Science
University of Singapore, August 2006 A talk to first-year students at the beginning of their scientific careers What is science about? What do scientists do? Dr Len Fisher takes us on a tour that encompasses biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics, showing how...
Dealing with the Heat
Daily Telegraph, July 2006 It is a scientific fact that heat makes us more irritable, but is it also addling our brains? Wine lovers were alarmed to be told yesterday that red wine should be stored in the fridge when temperatures soar. So what else can we do to make...
Radio Presenter: Redesigning the Human Body
BBC Radio 4 A series of five programmes that explores whether scientists could do better than Nature (or God). Len Fisher wonders how the body would work if we had a go at remaking ourselves. The Skin We're In 6 January 2006 Sunburn, rashes, cuts, spots, chafing,...
The Ockham’s Razor Principle
Ockham's Razor, ABC Radio National Robyn Williams: If you're a regular reader of New Scientist magazine, the chances are you'll have seen Len Fisher's friendly face staring from an ad about travel in Europe. It's a scientific tour, led by Len, and they set out this...