Tag: science
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There is no such thing as “alternative medicine”
There is no such thing as “alternative medicine” – any more than there is “alternative mathematics”. Yes, there are different ways to practise medicine, just as there are different ways of calculating the value of pi – but the fundamental remains: something is either medically valid or it is not. If it is not – […]
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Not even an April Fool
I can remember my first encounter with the metric system very clearly… In the Summer of 1972 the British Army mobilised in massive numbers to end the “no go areas” that had sprung up in nationalist areas of Belfast and elsewhere over the previous two and a half years. Operation Motorman was to be the […]
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Forty five years on
I’m a day late here, but the sheer brilliance of the achievement of Apollo 11 means I have to write of it. I was just three, but I remember the day well, watching the black and white images on the TV in the corner of the room in Donegal – where we were on holiday. […]
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The disruptive impact of a knowledge-based technology
War is the spur and the technology is originally concentrated in just one place, close to the frontline. But then it spreads and multiplies – and the commercial centres become the centres of the new technology. Within a few decades the old technologies – which have been steadily advancing up to this point – have […]
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Astrology: the anti-science acceptable to the educated élite?
Imagine if, in the US, a new novel that celebrated creationism was awarded the greatest of all literary prizes, topped the local best seller lists, gained five star reviews in the papers and was recommended to school pupils by their teachers. Typical American idiocy, eh? Then imagine in the rest of the English-speaking world a […]
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My one problem with Feynman’s QED
Well, as predicted, I finished off Richard Feynman‘s QED – The Strange Theory of Light and Matter in short order this morning – and it is a truly marvellous book. I just wish I had read it as an undergraduate. My one problem with it was its explanation of “stimulated emission“. Now, as an undergraduate, I […]
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What a brilliant book
Just over three hours ago I started reading Richard Feynman‘s QED – The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Penguin Press Science): and now, 110 pages later, I am stunned at its brilliance. If you are any sort of physics undergraduate you must read it. Similarly, if I was teaching ‘A’ level physics I would […]
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A celebration of science
This picture is of Cabbage White caterpillars chomping away at nasturtiums (tropaeolum majus) in my garden. Nasturtiums are, as is well known, fantastically easy to grow and I have wondered for a while why they also seem quite resistant to attacks by the snails and slugs that ravage everything else in my garden. Now, possibly, and […]
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Unicorns and the Juche
The authorities in North Korea have “reconfirmed” the discovery of a Unicorn lair, reports the Guardian. Happily they were aided by the fact that someone carved the words “unicorn lair” into the rock outside the animals’ home. Given the nature of the state we can only assume that the latest Kim to head the world’s […]
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The decline of the chemistry set
I had a couple of chemistry sets when I was young and also had great fun with them (though as they involved a naked flame my mother always supervised). One set allowed me to manufacture a foul-smelling, green-coloured gas – which the guide asserted had been used as a weapon during the Great War. I bought […]
cartesian product ... stuff about computing mostly 