- Stuart Clark
When the clipper ship Southern Cross sailed into a living hell off Chile during the night of 2 September 1859, little did the sailors know that they were witnessing the aftermath of a gigantic solar explosion that had engulfed the Earth. Today, astronomers are still unpicking the consequences of this tremendous event.
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- Douglas Richards
Sure, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and has received a number of other honours, but has Sir Tim Berners-Lee yet received his due? Douglas Richards argues that for a man who brought into being a tool - the hypertext language around which the Internet is based - that will have as profound an impact on human civilization as the wheel or electricity, the answer is an emphatic no...
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- Chris Smith
Simpsons fans will know only too well the opening sequence to the cartoon in which Homer discovers, during his commute, that he’s taken some of his work home with him – in the form of a radioactive fuel rod from the nuclear power plant! Unsurprisingly, the lump of material he subsequently throws out of the car window is glowing an ethereal green colour. But therein lies multiple myths of atomic-powered proportions, because most radioactive substances don’t really glow at all, let alone light up green!
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- Chris Smith
Ask anyone who made the world’s best violins and they’ll inevitably answer "Stradivari". But science is undermining the reputation of this great instrument maker whom, it seems, owes his success as much to an attempt at pest control as his craftmanship...
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- Mary O'Neill
One of the fun things about working in science is the scientific meeting. Lots of free tea and coffee, buffet lunches, an evening of free booze and a lovely dinner. But how to make the most of them?
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- Martin Westwell
A report was published warning that Britain's prosperity will suffer if the government does not come up with new money to help women scientists and engineers back to work after having children.
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- Martin Westwell
I am organising a public event in Oxford entitled "The Science of Wine Tasting". I thought that people would be really keen but when I mentioned it to a colleague she said, "Well, that'll take all then fun out of it".
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- Emma Gatti
The Pythia, the prophetess at the Oracle of Delphi, was said to be able to communicate with Apollo by going into a trance. But science has shown that these trances weren't down to divine intervention - instead they were the result of inhaling noxious gases from nearby geological fault lines...
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- Varuna Aluvihare
Although the summer appears to have ended, I thought I would deal with something that provides a perfect opportunity to marry good food and wine: the barbecue.
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- Martin Westwell
My mother-in-law loathes science and loves science. She loathes science because it is used to bulldoze her opinion-making when she is given no choice but to accept an idea because science says it is so.
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