Looking to the future: the Royal Society's Science Sees Further
It's been my profound honour to have had an early look at the Royal Society's Science Sees Further series, a set of articles commissioned for the august body's 350th anniversary year, discussing 12...
View ArticleArsenic life-forms in Yosemite: evidence of alien life? Wait and see
First things first: let’s not get too excited. The alleged discovery, by Nasa scientists, of arsenic-loving life-forms in Mono Lake, near California’s Yosemite National Park, is being hailed in some...
View ArticleThe death penalty: unconstitutional? Maybe. Wrong? Yes. Effective? Don't know
I note with interest that a court in Texas – the most killing-happy state in America – is holding a hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty. The argument is that the likelihood of...
View ArticleDavid Lynch and Russell Brand hawk meditation for traumatised veterans: is...
I’m not against celebrities getting involved in public debate. I’m really not. They can bring much-needed attention to neglected issues. So when I saw that David Lynch, Clint Eastwood and Russell Brand...
View ArticleMyths and Christmas: 'They predicted global cooling back in the 1970s, you know'
Since Christmas is a time of myths, I thought I’d take a moment to examine one of my favourites (with a hat-tip to the ever estimable Simon Singh). The myth goes like this. Once upon a time (the...
View ArticleJoe Bastardi has a wonderful name. But he's still wrong about global warming
So I read m’colleague Alex Singleton’s latest blog, and was startled to find that, at the bottom, it did not read “James Delingpole is away”. Because the God-Emperor himself would have been proud of...
View Article'An elaborate fraud'– the BMJ's damning verdict on Andrew Wakefield and the...
Has there ever been such a tragic misuse of medical research time and money than the millions poured into unnecessarily disproving the link between MMR and autism? Has there ever been such an...
View ArticleFeeling the Future: has science proved that we're psychic about porn? No (bet...
An American scientific journal is about to publish some research which, if it can be replicated and shown to be accurate, has the potential to undermine almost everything we think we know about...
View ArticleCollagen skin creams a waste of money, 'say scientists'. Well, they have been...
You know my least favourite journalistic cliche? It's not "romp", although I'm pretty sure nobody outside of the pages of the red-tops has ever "romped" with a member of their preferred sex. I don't...
View ArticleFluoride in the water: not a communist plot
We report today that "anti-fluoride campaigners" have "mounted a High Court bid to prevent fluoride being added to their water without their consent because they are concerned over its health...
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