Archive for the ‘Science & technology’ Category
Can Uri Geller bend spoons?
May 14th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Sure he can – but he doesn’t need special psychic powers to do so, just a bit of clever trickery. Really? So, how’s it done? Probably, like this:
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Fancy going weightless?
April 28th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I have read several books by and about the brilliant British scientist Stephen Hawking who suffers from motor neuron disease and once I even heard him lecture at London’s Royal Albert Hall. So I was delighted when this week he fulfilled his ambition to go weightless. He did it by taking a flight in a […]
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Having trouble with your PC?
April 6th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
BT’s Home IT advisors are supposed to be trained to cope with anything that is thrown at them and a recent survey reveals some IT issues that have left BT’s specialist advice team scratching their heads. Some of the calls from customers may raise a smile, but I guess what they highlight is a demand […]
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How many elements do you know?
March 27th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Check out this fun animation.
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It’s a kind of magic
March 3rd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke, “Profiles of The Future”, 1961 This quote was in my mind as I read “Tricks Of The Mind” by the British magician Derren Brown. I’ve now finished the book and you can read my review here.
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The Milgram experiment
February 16th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
I’m currently reading the book “Tricks Of The Mind” by the British magician Derren Brown. This is a really interesting – if badly-written – book. I have just come across his account of the Milgram test – something I’ve heard of before but thought it would be useful to revisit. The Milgram experiment of the […]
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Do you want to live forever?
February 4th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
This weekend, I watched a fascinating Channel 4 programme with this title. It was all about the breathtakingly radical ideas of a Cambridge biomedical gerontologist called Aubrey de Grey who believes that, within the next 20-30 years, we could extend life indefinitely by addressing seven major factors in the aging process. He describes his work […]
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“The God Delusion” (2)
February 4th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
In an earlier posting, I explained that I was reading “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins and I promised to review it for my web site. I’ve now finished this stimulating work and it seems somehow appropriate to draw attention to my review on a Sunday.
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Thanks for the memory
February 3rd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Earlier this week, I attended the latest monthly meeting of the Skeptics in the Pub organisation. These events are always very interesting, but the physical enviroment of the gatherings – an upstairs pub room that is suitable for a group a quarter of the size – is utterly inadequate. This month’s speaker was Dr Krissy […]
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The IPCC report on climate change
February 2nd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
It’s the most serious issue facing humankind and this could be the report which forces governments around the world to take meaningful action. I refer of course to the issue of climate change and to the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the subject. This argues that temperatures are probably going […]
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