I’m sitting in one of the gardens in Clare College, part of the history university of Cambridge, surrounded by beautiful trees, flowers, and even the occasional bumble bee hovers past me. I’ve come here for a conference titled “How will…
Something I learned this week: 200 children is a lot of children. I'm sure many of you could have told me that. It seems rather obvious. But it is incredible how much noise, mess and chaos 200 children can make.…
This week, BBC 3 launched it's new science show The year of making love. It was advertised as the UK's unique experiment into dating; can science help you find love? Now, this isn't usually something I would sit down and watch. But…
As scientists, have you ever been asked the question: "what do you do?" And get a blank stare of complete incomprehension back when you answer it? I have, and I haven't even done any seriously complicated science. The thing is,…
Scientists like to test materials, events, things under different conditions: changing the variables to see how the subject responds. This works well for items that can be tested in a laboratory, but what about those that are just too small? Or…
Inspired by nature, created by science. Science can be thought of as the study of nature, the discovery of what makes our world tick. By observing the natural world scientists learn what it is made up of, how species go…
When I was little, we used to have place mats on the dinner table that had all sorts of educational bits on them. As games, we used to try and memorise as much as possible from these placemats. Ok, I…
I've recently had to write an essay about whether or not I think Karl Popper got science 'right'. This is a pretty open-ended question, and required what I think is an insane amount of reading. After all of it, I…
This was a piece I wrote in August for the recently published November/December 2012 issue of the Popular Astronomy Magazine. Each planet has its own story to tell, a history of how it became what it is today. The Grand…
Watch out Einstein, a new science stereotype is blooming. Scientists have been seen to be ditching the lab coats, and instead are donning flowery shirts. Last night I went to the Massive Science Showoff, which was a huge success. Laughs,…
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