Tens of thousands of years ago, the arrival of people in the Americas, and in Australia and New Zealand, was followed by a wave of extinctions, particularly of the largest species, which made the most attractive game. More recently, rats, cats and goats have eaten their way through the native plants and animals of small […]
Evolution does not proceed in mighty anatomical jumps but through a process of gradual change, by transforming – very slightly – a gene, cell or bone so that it acts to a new purpose. In this way, a new species is eventually created, albeit one that still carries the hallmarks of its evolutionary predecessors. This inner
Brian Greene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Greene and http://www.briangreene.org/) has a gift for elucidating big ideas and knowing that a bombardment of too many small ones might make the armchair physicist despair. ‘The art of theoretical physics lies in simplifying the complex so as to preserve essential physical features while making the theoretical analysis tractable,’ he writes in his latest
The Hidden Reality Read More »
In April 2002, the great journal Lloyd’s List gave shipping a sex change, switching the nautical pronoun to ‘it’. ‘She’ fell by the quayside! There, in half a sentence, is the delight of Guy Deutscher’s (http://www.guydeutscher.org/) book. It is relaxed, witty and pertinent. English ships display feminine grace, not because a bulk carrier, barge or battleship is
Through The Language Glass by Guy Deutscher Read More »
Treat yourself to this engrossing narrative history which reveals the roots of modern science in the medieval world. The adjective ‘medieval’ has almost become a synonym for backwardness and uncivilized behaviour. Yet without the work of medieval scholars there could have been no Galileo, no Newton and no Scientific Revolution. In God’s Philosophers, James Hannam (http://jameshannam.com/) debunks
God’s Philosophers by James Hannam Read More »
Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink? Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight? Why do dining companions insist on ordering different meals instead of getting what they really want? Why do
Stumbling On Happiness by Daniel Gilbert Read More »
There aren’t many out-and-out good eggs in British journalism but Ben Goldacre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Goldacre and http://www.badscience.net/) is one of them. He mounts a ferocious attack on bad science. Currently (2013) he is Wellcome research fellow in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and has, since 2003, doubled as The Guardian’s scourge of sloppy science reporting,
In February 2021 concerns across the globe are rightly focussed on the COVID-19 pandemic. Humans will survive this disease and so far the global death toll is nowhere near the estimated 50 million dead of the 1918 flu pandemic.(1918 Pandemic (H1N1 virus) | Pandemic Influenza (Flu) | CDC) Once the virus has been tamed the
Collapse by Jared Diamond Read More »
In 1900 a group of sponge divers blown of course in the Mediterranean discovered an Ancient Greek shipwreck dating from around 70 BC. Lying unnoticed for months amongst their hard-won haul was what appeared to be a formless lump of corroded rock, which turned out to be the most stunning scientific artefact we have from
Decoding the Heavens Read More »
