‘If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales’ [attributed to Albert Einstein] We live in a universe of wonders and possibilities. The ancients looked up into the night sky and saw bright lights formed into the shapes of …
Category: Life and the Universe
Gaia Revisited
Lovelock - where is our species headed? When James Lovelock sprang to the attention of the wider public in the 1970s with his Gaia hypothesis, not all mainstream scientists were enthused. The idea that the Earth, its atmosphere and all life upon it is a self-regulating mechanism was, for some, too like science fiction. Other …
Odyssey
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 …
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 …
