You might remember that the Royal Institution (Ri), a charity dedicated to research, education and connecting science and the wider public, has been having financial difficulties. This wasn’t helped when ex-Director Baroness Susan Greenfield decided to sue them for unfair dismissal. That case is over, but the Ri isn’t out of the woods yet, and…
Take one science curriculum, some cameras and a couple of thousand school-kids, and what do you get? Over two hundred short films about science, entered into the Planet SciCast competition, the winners of which were announced last Friday in the hallowed halls of the Royal Institution in London. Photo by Laura Mtungwazi / SciCast SciCast…
Here too are the dreaming landscapes, lunar, derelict. Here too are the masses, tillers of the soil. And cells, fighters who lay down their lives for a song. Here too are cemeteries, fame and snow. And I hear the murmuring, the revolt of immense estates.
Last week I wondered about the stereotypical scientist with no dress sense, social skills or cultural awareness. It’s more accurate to say that non-scientists generally have no awareness of science (Brian Cox in the Guardian this week: “it’s still acceptable for people in this country to say, almost as an aside, while drinking their claret,…
There was a rather strange column in Nature this week, discussing the work of the Science and Entertainment Exchange of the US National Academy of Sciences, an organization that exists, in brief, to help entertainment producers get it right. Strange, because the article by Daniel Sarewitz pours scorn on such a project. But what’s really…
GIANT FLYING MONSTERS! No, seriously. As part of the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary celebrations, there’s a festival of arts and science on London’s Southbank this summer, See Further. I’ve already talked about Icarus at the Edge of Time, and will be participating in a Cafe Scientifique event discussing the history of scientific conversation on Monday…
Are you a blue-footed booby? Perhaps you’re more of a wombat or gnu, or even a great bustard. More to the point, have you dressed up like one?
Strategy games tend to be of the ‘take over the world’ variety, whether by force, diplomacy, economics—or a combination of the three. The classic ‘world on a board’ game is Risk, favoured of long, rainy Sunday afternoons and engendering countless and never-ending family feuds. Hah! South America is mine! you exult, before you realize that…
Culture doesn’t happen in a vacuum. When we go to art galleries or see plays or listen to music, we invariably do it in the company of other people. We will often have dinner or a drink before, after, or even during the performance (whether in the interval or not).
Science tells us how we got here; poetry tells us who we are The Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize is sponsored by the University of Utah Press and the University of Utah Department of English, and is awarded annually. I happen to have, on my desk, a copy of last year’s winner: transistor rodeo by…
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