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The drugs don't always work
A doctor friend of mine recently told me that side-effects from prescription drugs are one of medicine's biggest embarrassments. We take it for granted that some of the pills we take might hurt us, or...
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Off to the States in August
There are few places in the world a geek yearns to visit more than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. I have certainly dreamed about it a few times. So it's with a happy heart I can...
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Where is the support for working mums?
Working mothers are big news at the moment, following the unsurprising revelation that the UK has some of the most expensive childcare in the world (not to mention only two weeks of paternity leave in...
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Happy Geek Pride Day!
Get your gadgets out and start waving them about, because today is of course International Geek Pride Day (Or Towel Day for Hitchhiker fans). I could barely sleep last night for the excitement. Today I...
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The mundane world of coincidence
One of my favourite BBC radio shows of all time is More or Less, which explores statistics that have been in the news or niggled listeners each week. So I'm very happy to say that for the next few...
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Regent Tweet
I'm not ashamed to admit that even though I live a stone's throw from Regent Street (second only to Oxford Street as London's most famous shopping district), I buy most of my things online. I'd just...
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The pleasures of shopping offline... no, really
T-shirt store or nightclub? Who knows anymore.I've spent most of the day wandering around Regent Street in London with dozens of other bloggers and technophiles from around the globe, as part of a...
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Defending Isaac Asimov
Being a science fiction fan isn't always easy. The rest of the world treats you a like a nerdy philistine (before you judge, remember that George Orwell was also a secret fan of genre fiction). I've...
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Lucky me!
Last night I went to the Association of British Science Writers' Awards ceremony at the Royal Society in London, fully expecting to come home empty-handed (and perhaps, if I'm honest, a little...
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London Science Book Club 9
Last night was the latest meeting of the London Science Book Club. Our pick was Lisa Jardine's The Curious Life of Robert Hooke, about the 17th century scientist (back then known as a natural...
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How much security is too much?
The 2012 Olympics are almost upon us. Not to be an Olympics grinch, but I'm not much of a fan of huge public events... not because they're not fun (although they're rarely as much fun as we expect them...
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Goodbye, London! Hello, Boston!
This weekend I'll be leaving for Boston to join the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship program at MIT. I shall miss my cosy desk in Fitzrovia, but I'm hoping that this year will give me the...
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In love with my label maker
I sometimes wonder how the brain organises its thoughts. I imagine (this is deeply unscientific) that it's like a set of boxes. The sealed boxes are for old memories, triggered open only by occasional...
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I'm in geek heaven
Without wanting this blog to sound like a postcard to my family, my first week at MIT has been a blast and a half. I feel like I've found my ancestral home, almost as much as I did when I visited San...
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Gadgets that need some elbow grease
Around this time last year, I gave a talk at the Royal Society of Arts about the need we humans seem to have for tinkering and mending, and how difficult it is to fix gadgets these days. It's a subject...
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The value of the Ig Nobel Prizes
I'm fairly certain there isn't a nerd alive who hasn't heard of the Ig Nobel Prizes. So I was very lucky to be there for the ceremony at Harvard University last Thursday night. It was awesome (there's...
View ArticleThe first real hackers
If you haven't heard of the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, I'm not surprised. It's a small outfit, tucked away at the far edge of the campus. Formed in 1946 (according to its website), at its peak it...
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The enduring dream of the technological fix
I've always thought that futurology is bunkum, but I do believe there is value in studying the past's hopes for the future. For me, as a science journalist, the dawn of the nuclear age is a...
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China and the new industrial world order
I was expecting China to make more of an appearance in last night's US Presidential Debate on foreign policy. It's featured already in election coverage so far (mainly around trade and jobs, including...
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The triumph of the grid
As you, both of my blog readers, will know, I've been spending my year here at MIT in Boston researching the science and engineering behind urban planning. We often take the design of our streets for...
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