Phil Jones of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia has been much in the news over the last week. Hackers broke into the CRU servers and downloaded a large number of emails and other documents. When I was writing this, a zipped 60MB file containing the stolen material was still [...]
What do you do if you are a second-rate theorist but wannabe famous? The answer used to be: tough, try your luck as a rock musician instead. These days it is not so simple. Several factors have come together:
(1) the idea that it is only fair that everyone should be allowed to delay their entry [...]
In an article earlier in the week, I managed to call the virus responsible for the expected UK epidemic of “swine flu” H5N1, whereas it is actually H1N1 (error since corrected). But my error was somewhat forgiveable. The current system for naming flu viruses is just hopeless. The “current seasonal flu” - which people got [...]
I quite enjoy Adam Hart-Davis’ television programmes sometimes. He sets to with enormous enthusiasm to build some ancient machine just the way it was built long ago - by the Romans or whoever. This often casts some light on the history of the period. I was also quite amused when HMRC cancelled his “tax doesn’t [...]
Anthony Wesley, an Australian amateur astronomer, started observing about 11pm last Sunday evening. By midnight the “seeing” had deteriorated and he was thinking of quitting, but at 12:10am decided to do something else for half-an-hour, leaving his camera running. He came back at 12:40am and noticed a dark spot rotating into view in Jupiter’s south [...]
