Mssv

Another long-haul flight, another blog post. After I’ve exhausted the in-flight movies, this month’s issues of Scientific American and the New Yorker, listened to one and a half episodes of In Our Time, and even done some work, I’ve had to fall back to the option of last resort - writing a post for this […]

Why a fatty diet leads to diabetes - type 2 diabetes, specifically. This article at the Times is a surprisingly detailed report of how researchers at UCSD determined that hyperglycaemia suppresses the GnT-4a enzyme, which is basically a blood glucose sensor for the cells that produce insulin. Too much suppression results in pancreatic […]

The last couple of episodes of In Our Time on Radio 4 have been particularly good. The first was on Pragmatism, not a topic that I initially had much interest in until I discovered that the philosophy of pragmatism, especially that of Charles Peirce, is rather close to what I support - unsurprising, given that […]

Scientists, be on guard … ET might be a malicious hacker - nice to see people starting to think about the possibility of a viral attack by aliens. Doesn’t seem too outlandish to me (honestly) and brings to mind shades of Vernor Vinge.

One of the things I love about going abroad is the fact that the food is always cheaper and better (at the same price) than London. Sure, London has good food - if you can afford the money and time to check it out. When you’re on holiday, not only does the rest of the […]

When you think of big budget BBC documentaries, Walking with Dinosaurs normally comes up top. While it was a big hit, I wasn’t too fond of it because I didn’t think the CGI looked quite as good as Jurassic Park and hence looked a bit too shiny and unrealistic. However, their latest documentary, Space Odyssey: […]

I’ve often wondered what it is I’d like to do in my life. Science, Mars, politics (of the non-traditional sort), education, alternate reality games have all appealed and continue to appeal. But perhaps one of the things I feel most passionately about is intelligent thinking and rational thought - science and the enlightenment, in short. […]

The notorious cult of ‘al gebra’ is a fearsome cult indeed. Says Attorney General John Ashcroft, “The desire average solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on a tangent in a search of absolute value.” The fact that I understand it and find it funny is a true testament to my geek credentials.

During the England game yesterday we came up with an idea for a new reality show. There are already shows centred around pop stars, hospitals, pirates and all sorts, but what about scientists?
Introducing LAB: The Show. 12 graduate and postdoc students in biology are placed in a lab for ten weeks in order to produce […]

Olivia Judson, an evolutionary biologist at Imperial College, has written a piece in the New York Times yesterday called Some Things Are Better Left on Mars, where she argues that the risk of infection by Martian lifeforms far outweighs any scientific gain from bringing back rock and soil samples. Given that we know organisms on […]