Reflections on the Space Race I have been following with interest the space "mission" of British astronaut Tim Peake. Yesterday, he became the first Brit to do a space walk. That, and an article in last week's Sunday Times, reminded me that more than half a century has passed since we humans first sent one …
Category: Life and the Universe
It's a Wonderful World
In a world so often corrupted by wars and darkened by terrible acts in the name of perverted philosophies, occasionally a ray of light shines through the abyss of hatred and intolerance to remind you that life is not all bad news. Sometimes, the tiny shafts of illumination come in a form so unexpected, yet …
Saving the Sumatran Tiger
Tyger, tyger, burning bright,In the forests of the night;What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?(William Blake) Today, I'd like to suggest a thought experiment: Suppose that those of you reading this article - let's say there are four hundred of you (you see, I'm an optimist) - are the …
The Final Frontier
To Boldly Go (5) So what is the future for space opera? With modern developments in cinematography and CGI, movies and television seem to have become the favoured media for science fiction. More people are hooked on visual fantasy than ever before. Film series like Alien, Star Wars and Star Trek, singles like ET, The …
It's all in the DNA!
The Seven Daughters of Eve Bryan Sykes's book is one that bears reading a second and even a third time. It is the story of mitochondrial DNA. I first read it shortly after its publication in 2001. Science has moved on. There has been much new research and while scientists do not always agree on …
We are not alone … yet!
"How would you feel if a Martian vomited stale liquor on the White House floor?" Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is a novel that should be read at least twice. Read it first as the quaint, inventive work of fantasy that it is. The Red Planet of Bradbury's imagination is peopled with small, light brown, …
To Boldly Go
The Magic of Space Opera - when Science Fiction came of age Seventy years have passed since Isaac Asimov penned the first of his Foundation stories. Tens of thousands of years in the future, humanity has colonised far beyond the Solar System and has established a galaxy-wide empire, dependant for trade and communications on faster-than-light …
Species!
On the Natural Selection of Charles Darwin A Review of The Origin of Species Around the middle of the nineteenth century, an Augustinian friar, physicist and mathematician called Gregor Mendel experimented with pea plants and, without realising it, founded a whole new field of scientific endeavour. Mendel's valuable contribution to science became known and recognised …
