Musgrave love
For anyone interested in vaccines, toxins and other issues pertaining to molecules and their interactions with people, pharmacologist Ian Musgrave’s blog is a must-read.
read moreKissing as Manipulation
Like millions of other people, I found the “First Time” video (20 strangers filmed kissing each other) on my Facebook feed, and spent a few heartwarming, vaguely life-affirming minutes watching it. The next day it turned out that there was more to the story than this: First off, this wasn’t a film-school project or a social documentary work, but a stealth commercial for a clothing brand. Not only that, but many of the “strangers” were of the acting and modelling professions, with a couple of musicians thrown in...
read more…and we’re back
After about three years of inactivity, I’m dusting off the blog, oiling the creaky joints and getting it ready for use. the reason? A new book is in the pipeline.
read moreThe Buzz II: Revenge of the peers
short update: This article by Carl Zimmer in Slate might give you an idea of the controversy generated by the “Arsenic-based Life” announcement and research paper I wrote about a little while ago. Many scientists are not happy with the quality of the paper and argue that the NASA researchers may have been too hasty in publishing it, and point out technical problems in the article. The authors of the paper do not agree. It’s all very exciting, especially for those of us who enjoy seeing science in the...
read moreThe Buzz:
The world just keeps getting fuzzier. Last week we found out about a bacterium that can metabolise arsenic instead of phosphorus; now it seems we have solar-powered wasps. Is there no respect for demarcation any more?
read moreAnother Life?
Something’s cooking at NASA. The webs are abuzz with the words “extraterrestrial life” but a cursory examination reveals that the rumors actually point to an announcement of terrestrial life, albeit one that is very different from life-as-we-know-it. I think that’s even more exciting; a finding that will shake the foundations of Biology – and it involves a lot less travel.No, really, what’s more thrilling: finding alien life forms on Mars or Titan, or finding them right here among us? The concept of the...
read moreMaking a Mockery
At the Grand Academy of Lagado on the flying island of Laputa, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver encounters strange and fanciful creatures: the scientists. He observes their attempts to extract sunbeams from cucumbers, weave coloured spider webs by feeding the spiders differently coloured flies, and other absurd projects. One ardent researcher is working on “an operation to reduce human excrement to its original food by separating the several parts, removing the tincture which it receives from the gall, making the odor exhale, and scumming off the...
read moreGuilty as charged.
Author copies of the Brazilian edition of SW – “Pequenas maravilhas” – arrived this morning at my doorstep. A very nice way of starting one’s day; I recommend it heartily. I had a peek inside, as you do – though what you expect to achieve by that is a mystery. The first and only thing that caught my eye is the interesting fact that the translator chose to amend the first few paragraphs, in which I originally demonstrated my ignorance of cricketing terms; I now appear to be demonstrating to Brazilian...
read moreist beste populärwissenschaftliche Lektüre.
The German translation of SW, titled Kleine Wunderwerke, translated by Sebastian Vogel, is out. I received a few copies of it by mail the other day. One goes straight to the “vanity shelf”, of course, but what should I do with the rest of them? It’s a nice little format, with an attractive cover, and they’ve even added an index, which makes it look rather respectable. Actually, the whole thing looks much more respectable to me, since I don’t know German and therefore cannot tell the silly bits from the serious...
read moreMore Fan Trouble
Update on the fan front: X31 no longer gives the “fan error” message, but has for some days now been refusing to start properly. When I turn it on, its screen stays dark, it emits a series of about ten irregular beeps, then does nothing more except whir a bit. It does not respond to anything. I turn it off, then on again, and the same thing happens four or five times until it starts up normally. I tried to do several things to it, and got good results blowing into it as described in the last post. At one point I thought it might...
read more
Recent Comments