Archive for the ‘Science & technology’ Category
“Charles Darwin And The Tree Of Life”
February 1st, 2009 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I’ve never had a biology lesson in my life because, for most of my school years, my school did not have a biology teacher. But, of course, over the subsequent years I’ve read things around the subject. I’ve always been utterly unpersuaded by the notion of creationism – it makes no sense […]
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Weird science – the what and the why (2)
January 18th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
I have already done a brief posting on yesterday’s “Weird Science” event which I attended in London with three friends. One of those friends, the immensely thoughtful and knowledgeable Nick Hobson, crafted a report on the event for a mutual friend who could not make it. This account was too good not to share and, […]
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Weird science – the what and the why (1)
January 17th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
I’ve had a terrific day at the Conway Hall in central London attending an event called “Weird Science” organised by the Centre for Inquiry and the Ethical Society. Four very clever and entertaining speakers each had a one-hour slot: Richard Wiseman, former magician and now professor based at the University of Hertfordshire, discussed the psychology […]
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Is UFO report a wind up? (1)
January 8th, 2009 by Roger Darlington
It’s everywhere from the “Sun” newspaper to BBC on-line. It is simply astonishing that the media can give so much space and credibility to the utterly absurd notion that a wind farm turbine at Conisholme was damaged by a UFO. These aliens are supposed to have fantastic technology that enables them to traverse vast distances […]
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Size really does matter
December 8th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
As you will see here and here.
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Can we be bugged on the move?
October 19th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
At the moment, I’m reading a book by the American academic Jonathan Zittrain entitled “The Future Of The Internet – And How To Stop It”. Today I reached page 110 which contains this statement: ” Mobile phones can be reprogrammed at a distance , allowing their microphones to be secretly turned on even when the […]
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Does homeopathy work?
October 11th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
I have blogged before on the subject of homeopathy here. On that occasion, I had two comments: one opponent and one supporter. I return to the subject this week because I have been contacted by e-mail from someone with whom I was at university but with whom I have not been in contact for the […]
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Will the world end today?
September 10th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Now why would i ask that. Well, today, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva will be switched on. Curving round a vast subterranean chamber, the machine, some 27km in circumference, is the world’s largest particle accelerator. Once it is switched on, it will fire beams of hadron particles in opposite directions at 99.9999991% of the […]
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Half a century for NASA
July 29th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created 50 years ago today. In my teens in the 1960s, I thrilled to the achievements of the Administration and stayed up all night to watch the first moon walk live on television. I was convinced then that by now we would have permanent settlements […]
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Earth’s second moon
June 22nd, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Ever heard of Cruithne? No – neither had I until this week. It’s an asteroid that was discovered in 1986 that is in orbit around the Sun in 1:1 orbital resonance with that of the Earth. Due to its unusual orbit relative to that of the Earth, it is what is known as a periodic […]
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