-
Excitement
·
1–2 minutes·
1 comment on ExcitementThere’s an advert on TV for I, Robot where a typically breathless voiceover proclaims that in the movie, ‘Will Smith defines excitement’. For some reason I can’t get out of my head the image of Will Smith beginning the movie by reading out the definition for ‘excitement’ from a dictionary.
-
Al-Gebra
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.
-
Patently obvious
A beautiful example of what our elected representatives get up to in Parliament these days: the proper pronunciation of patent. Paul Flynn: My hon. Friend will remember the outrageous suggestion that I tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the Committee by saying that the 1,000 people in Newport who have to say…
-
Lord
Among the usual CDs and bills that I pick up in the mail whenever I return to Oxford was a strange package claiming that I’d bought the rights to one acre of land in the Loch Borralan Estate. Within the package was a certificate declaring me ‘Lord Hon of Loch Borralan’, a map of my…
-
The world sighs
Two conversations with intelligent American undergraduates I know: Them: So how far away is Wales then? Me: About two or three hours. Them: Will we get a passport stamp when we go? (pause) Me: Get a what? Them: A passport stamp. It’s a different country, right? Me: Well, yes, in a historical sense, but no…
-
The Invasion
The light in the sky is different these days, stronger and more persistent. Wind sweeps through the streets and the weather can change faster than a footstep, transforming the air from a muggy heat to a crisp freshness. The almost-transient population of Oxford undergraduates migrated away to warmer climes weeks ago, and now they have…
-
Lab: The Show
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…
-
Alarm
An extremely noisy and irritating fire alarm is scraping across my eardrums here at the lab. We have quite a clever alarm system here, in that there are two types of alarms – the first one (which is what I am hearing right now) means ‘get ready, there might be a fire’ and the second…
-
Superluminal
An excerpt from a BBC News story about a new Russian missile: “Colonel Baluyevsky gave few details of the new missile which was tested on Wednesday, but said it was one that moved five times the speed of light.” Wow, that’s some seriously good engineering they’ve got over there in Russia. If I lived in…
-
Snapshot
The feeling of total, horrified incredulity is not one that I get to enjoy very often, but this afternoon I had a stiff dose of it. For the past week or so I’ve been working on some tissue samples that have probably seen close to a dozen hours of solid work going into them. Today,…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
mssv 