Science
How science became politicised
Here’s a paradox. Over the past two-and-a-half years, a cadre of senior politicians and their ‘expert’ advisers across the world…
In search of the peripatetic philosopher Theophrastus
Publishers lately seem to have got the idea that otherwise uncommercial subjects might be rendered sexy if presented with a…
A tribute to my friend James Lovelock
The scientist James Lovelock died this week at the age of 103. He was best known for his Gaia theory,…
The musical note that can trigger cold sweats and sightings of the dead
Imagine that all the frequencies nature affords were laid out on an extended piano keyboard. Never mind that some waves…
It’s a miracle this exhibition even exists: Audubon’s Birds of America reviewed
In 2014, an exhibition of watercolours by the renowned avian artist, John James Audubon, opened in New York. The reviews,…
Know your left from your right: the brain’s divided hemispheres
The dust jacket of The Matter With Things quotes a large statement from an Oxford professor: ‘This is one of…
Why we should study literature, not science
Gstaad Who was it who said good manners had gone the way of black and white TV? Actually it was…
The forgotten Einstein: how John von Neumann shaped the modern world
Why isn’t John von Neumann better known?
The case for dodging cracks in the pavement
It is interesting to consider what would have happened if the Covid virus had emerged in 1921. Or 1821. Or…
Made me buzz like an electron: Science – Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda reviewed
Given my affection for M*A*S*H, I can’t think why I haven’t listened to Alan Alda’s podcasts before now, besides the…
How the Lancet lost our trust
How the Lancet lost our trust
An orange or an egg? Determining the shape of the world
Simon Winchester follows the volatile French mission to Ecuador in 1735 to determine the shape of the Earth
Stephen Hawking: the myth and the reality
I could never muster much enthusiasm for the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. His work, on the early universe and the…
If you want a play that brings girls into science, commission a man: Jina and the STEM Sisters reviewed
Jina and the STEM Sisters is a blatant act of propaganda. And its intentions are excellent. This is a musical…
Letters: What really irritates Meghan’s critics
Meghan’s adroitness Sir: Tanya Gold suggests that people criticise Meghan Markle because she is mixed race and a woman, and…
Grotesquely plodding: Late Night Staring At High Res Pixels reviewed
The Finborough’s new show is a love story with the male partner absent. Two women, one Irish and one American,…
The poetic beauty of science
Safe spaces, diversity quotas, gender-neutral pronouns, culturally relative facts, heteronormative hegemony. Are my right-on credentials right on enough? Am I…
The Egyptians knew the value of accidental discoveries
The government has plans to fund a new research agency to back ‘cutting-edge science’. Ptolemaios (Ptolemy) I (367-282 bc), the…
Memory – and the stuff of dreams
Can you remember when you heard about 9/11? Chances are you’ll be flooded instantly with memories — not only where…
Letters: Is cycling really conservative?
Veritas vincit Sir: Professor Dawkins eloquently and engagingly defines true truth for us (‘Matters of fact’, 19 December). It seems…
The insidious attacks on scientific truth
What is truth? You can speak of moral truths and aesthetic truths but I’m not concerned with those here, important…
A singular mind: Roger Penrose on his Nobel Prize
Roger Penrose on his Nobel Prize, the beauty of physics – and why AI is nothing to fear
Christiaan Huygens – hero of time and space
This book, soaked like the Dutch Republic itself ‘in ink and paint’, is enchanting to the point of escapism. The…
Unpleasant smells can actually enhance pleasure
Harold McGee’s Nose Dive: A Field Guide to the World’s Smells is an ambitious and enormous work. Indeed it’s so…
The solving of a biological mystery
DNA is the blueprint that encodes the instructions to make proteins. Proteins are the building blocks and the machines that…
