Mssv

You know the feeling well. You’ve been queuing up in a worryingly long line for a film or a talk for a while now, and while you’ve resigned yourself to getting a seat at the back behind a pillar, you’re still holding out hope that you’ll actually get inside. Just as you begin to near […]

When someone says to you, “I need to make sure I can get back in time to Cambridge,” and your first reaction is that of a genuine stunned silence and an incredulous, “You’re travelling back in time?” you know you’ve been watching too many time travel movies.

Are you going to be in or around Cambridge on the 29th April? If so, what better way to spend the evening than attending a delightful presentation by me on ‘The Human Mission to Mars’. I’ll be talking about why we should send humans to Mars, how we might do it and how much it’d […]

“… You should aim for a total text length of 6000 words. Other than in exceptional circumstances, you should not exceed 8000 words.”
That’s a typical guide for a dissertation at Cambridge. When I read that, I think to myself, ‘Okay, in that case I should aim to write around 6000 words.’ Seems straightforward enough.
But apparently […]

Scene: A moderately untidy lab in a university with stacks of papers on tables and computers humming away to themselves. One person, G, is building a couple of computers and taking apart two others. S watches by. Another, R, is working on a paper.
G holds up a dusty-looking computer card.
G: R, what should I do […]

So it was a gorgeous day yesterday in Cambridge, sun shining, birds singing, etc etc, and after a game of badminton in the morning I went to do some reading on the Trinity College backs. I originally intended to take along An Instance of the Fingerpost which had been sitting around in my room looking […]

Over the past two days I’ve had an excellent two-part workshop in my neuroscience course on addiction, covering what we know about the causes of drug addiction at a molecular, cellular and cognitive level, reward pathways in the brain and possible treatments, vaccines and cures for drug addiction. Definitely one of the most thought provoking […]

Fuji Food - Cambridge’s first Japanese food store, full of Japanese snack, noodle and frozen food goodness. I was quite pleased with their sweet selection, stocked with the requisite Pocky sticks and rice crackers. The noodles looked pretty decent as well, and I’m considering trying out the frozen octopus balls sometime.

Is ragging - making new initiates/players/students perform pointless tasks - the key to forming a strong community?

Saw four people busking with xylophones and glockenspiels in Cambridge city centre today - I think it’s been the first time for years that I’ve felt compelled to give a street performer some money. Their performance of Blue Danube was pretty damn impressive.
On another note, I have two long posts that I have in progress […]