Nothing shocks me, I'm a scientist

Sense and censorship

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:24:00 +0000

I'm always a bit bemused when people tell me we should censor the Internet. For one thing, it's technically tough, because the people who want information will usually find a way to get it. Secondly, the Internet is like much of the rest of the media: you may like only the New York Times, but to get it, you'll have to grudgingly accept The Daily Mail. Censoring one person online threatens the freedom of speech of everyone else. Thirdly, and most importantly, you can never be sure of the motives of the people who are calling for censorship and where they will stop. I wrote a comment piece for The Guardian today exploring this third point, following news that Google, Facebook and other giants of the Internet will be censoring some of their content in India, in line with a court order from the government. Check it out and please do let me know what you think about Internet censorship too.

Out soon in paperback!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:20:00 +0000

If you missed out on reading Geek Nation last year because you're not keen on hardbacks, or they're a bit too expensive for you, or you prefer a book you can fit in your pocket or your bag, then you'll be delighted to know that it will be out in the shops in paperback in exactly three weeks' time (or in May if you happen not to live in Europe). American readers may also be pleased to hear that it will be available Stateside too for the first time in May.

The cover is a funky mash-up of the Asian hardback and some of the colours from the European version, and on the back you will find a fetching little portrait of me looking especially geeky. There will be a few more events and signings this year, so please keep an eye on the events page of my website for more details. Have a Happy 2012!

Could our streets make us happier?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:01:00 +0000

Living in London these days, you can't help but notice how aggressive the city seems to have become. Cyclists hate drivers, drivers hate cyclists, pedestrians hate cyclists and drivers, and everyone who's not on a bus hates buses. We just don't seem to be very happy on our streets. Sadder still, we've taken for granted that there's not a lot we can do about it.

Well, that was until now. For the last few months I've been asking traffic engineers and scientists whether it's possible to rebuild the streets in a way that might make us safer, happier and generally nicer people. One answer is an increasingly popular (if controversial) concept known as Shared Space, which is a way of designing streets without segregating road users. Essentially, everyone is encouraged to use the same street at the same time... there are no pavements as such. Pioneered in Holland, it seems to be working over there by slowing down drivers and making all road users more aware of each other. And it's since been imported all over the world. The most high-profile British Shared Space project is almost finished in London's famous museum district on Exhibition Road (in the photo).

Another solution to maddening traffic junctions is the "scramble crossing", seen in Tokyo and now at Oxford Circus in London. I live very close to this crossing, and have to say, I love it. The traffic lights are still there (it's not a Shared Space) but now pedestrians can cross diagonally as well as on the sides, making it simpler to get from one corner to another.

If you'd like to know more about this and other research into the future of smarter streets, then tune in to hear me on BBC Radio 4 at 9pm on Tuesday 3rd January. There are loads of mind-bending ideas packed into the half-hour show. In fact, since making it, I've been looking at the roads around me with totally fresh eyes... Why is the kerb at that particular height? Why do we have traffic lights? Why do we need signs to tell us to go slower? It may sound nerdy, but it's one of the most fascinating topics I've worked on, so please listen in and let me know your thoughts.

A lot of cooking later...

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:14:00 +0000

We had a bottle of sloe gin, two jars of mango chutney, three jars of sweet chilli jam (below), a tin of biscotti (above), a jar of peanut butter fudge and a tin of florentines... phew. My husband and I decided to get into the holiday spirit this year by making our presents ourselves (for reasons explained in an earlier post). And even though it was damn hard work, you'll be happy to know they went down a storm. Join the revolution and try making your own stuff! Let me know about it too.

Watch out, my blood and sweat is in there. Yum.

London Science Book Club 6

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:16:00 +0000

Tuesday was the latest meeting of the London Science Book Club (now officially a year old!), and our pick was Supercooperators, out just this year by mathematical biologist, Martin Nowak, and former New Scientist editor, Roger Highfield. It being almost Christmas, this was the perfect touchy-feely tome our group needed to get us into the spirit. I've often heard friends of mine (usually bankers) claim that selfishness is programmed into our genes, to justify bad behaviour and greed. In fact, as Nowak's research proves, there is a good case to be made that cooperation has played a vital part in evolution. Essentially, his argument is that "natural cooperation" is as important as Darwin's idea of natural selection.

There's a lot in the book that our group had heard before, and some of it a long time ago: I was already familiar, for example, with the Prisoner's Dilemma and the Tragedy of the Commons, which are both fleshed out in detail in Supercooperators. But Nowak's trick is to frame familiar ideas like these in the world of biology. We all found his argument compelling, and Highfield had also done a brilliant job of illustrating the science in a way that's fun to read. The real pleasures of this book are the anecdotes and the glimpse you get into the everyday life of a scientist. For at least one of our group, it was the favourite book club pick of the year.

My homemade Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:07:00 +0000

I live very close to one of London's busiest shopping streets and over the years this has made me nervous of Christmas. I've learned to hate the elbow-poking crowds with their fists full of plastic bags, so rude that they'd kick a grandmother to grab the last bargain. Which is why, this year, my husband and I are making all our presents ourselves. We're baking, gluing, cutting and picking everything from scratch (or as close to scratch as possible). I would tell you what we're making, but for the sake of surprise I'm keeping the actual gifts a secret for now. I'll let you know how it went after 25th December. Suffice to say, it's hard work but satisfying.

What got me thinking about all this in the first place was an exhibition and debate on making and crafting at the V&A a little while ago. It inspired me to write a piece for the BBC Radio 4 show, Four Thought, about why I'm a late adopter to technology. I'm of course in favour of scientific and technological progress, but when it comes to buying new gadgets (or any new things actually), I feel uncomfortable about throwing my old stuff away. This may be one reason I'd rather fix things or make them if I can. If you'd like to hear more of my thoughts on this, then tune into Radio 4 on 30th November at 8.45pm. I'd love to know what you, both my blog readers, think too.

(And if you'd rather not make your own presents and are looking for something to gift, then The Independent has just named Geek Nation one of their best science books for Christmas. There are even a few signed copies available at the magnificent Foyles bookstore on Charing Cross Road... just sayin'...).

The Right to Information revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:09:00 +0000

In the second of my two special radio items from India following massive anti-corruption protests there this summer (the first being an episode of Discovery on electronic governance), this week I'm on Click talking about Right to Information. This is a legislative act passed around six years ago that requires the Indian government to give citizens whatever data they want about how the country is run... as tiny as the decisions behind pupil admissions at a school, to as major as which politicians are diddling their expenses.

Just like freedom of information powers in other countries, Right to Information has been called the most powerful piece of legislation in Indian government history. And a glance at the newspapers in any given week will explain why: it's exposed enormous scandals and empowered millions of ordinary people. In this week's Click on the BBC World Service, I explore how this new generation of information activists are using the Internet and social networking to squeeze maximum benefit out of the act and helping to reduce corruption. Tune in or listen to the podcast here.

India's bureaucracy goes digital

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:29:00 +0000

Living in Britain, I've always been sceptical of public sector IT projects. If you'd like to know why, you need only monitor the progress of government efforts to move NHS paper medical records onto a national computer network. Not only did the projected costs of this spiral past £11 billion, but in the end the idea was shelved altogether. So when I learned that India was trying to shift its entire bureaucracy online (and bear in mind, this is one of the biggest and most tangled bureaucracies on the planet), I'll admit, it sounded like a white elephant waiting to appear.

In the course of writing Geek Nation, though, and now having done a feature for the BBC World Service science series Discovery about electronic governance in India... my mind has been changed. Although there have been pitfalls along the way, India is slowly and successfully digitising every scrap of paper in its bureaucratic ministries and regional government departments from land records all the way down to birth certificates. It's even rolling out a national biometric identity scheme (photo above), with the aim of processing a whopping million people a day. And much of this is thanks to India harnessing its legions of skilled IT professionals. It's transforming the lives of ordinary people by making government more accessible, transparent and less corrupt. Don't believe me? Then tune into the BBC World Service tonight at 7.30pm.

London Science Book Club 5

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:24:00 +0000

Tonight was the latest meeting of the London Science Book Club, and our pick was Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear by Canada-based journalist, Dan Gardner. It's essentially a book about the way we misuse and misinterpret statistics, in areas as broad as breast cancer occurrence and fears around nuclear power. It's full of wonderful snatches of research, particularly by the psychologists Kahneman and Tversky, who ran some famous experiments trying to understand why and how people make errors. And it will make you think very differently about the stats you hear about in the news. One funny example I read recently, proving how easy it is for people to blind us with numbers is this: When Elvis Presley died in 1977, there were 37 Elvis impersonators in the world. By 1993, there were 48,000. So extrapolating, every 3rd person will be an Elvis impersonator by 2010. This is ridiculous of course, yet it's the kind of thing that happens in news reports all the time.

Risk also happens to be well-written and beautifully researched, if a little more focused on examples than human stories. The only thing missing, a couple of us noted, was some deeper explanation of why humans behave so irrationally when it comes to some fears. Having read Antonio Damasio's book Descartes' Error in our first book club, we were all aware of the neuroscience of behaviour and how it has shaped our understanding of what it means to be human - with all our faults. Is there something about odds that we just can't seem to grasp? Are we just a bit thick, or is there more at play?

In all though, a big thumbs up for Risk! We really enjoyed it.

Also, some good news for new members: Owing to work and family commitments, we have had a couple of people drop out of our small club. So if you're based near London and would be willing to get together with us once every two months over a good non-fiction science book, then please send me an email or a tweet (contact details available here).

Final book talk of the year

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:11:00 +0000

By my reckoning, I have done 21 book talks and literary festivals on three continents for Geek Nation this year. Now, the last one is approaching. And it's in Sheffield. The Off the Shelf literary festival starts this weekend and my part will be played on Monday night, with an illustrated talk at the Showroom Cinema at 7pm. Since it's a special occasion, I'll be giving away a free signed copy of Geek Nation to the best question from the audience. So book your tickets now (or get them on the door on Monday)!

In other news, Geek Nation will be out in paperback in Europe in February with a fresh cover (above). Well, actually, it's the Asian cover slightly remixed, but it looks super cool. If you'd like to be one of the first to get your hands on a copy, you can pre-order it now on Amazon UK.

Mathematics in the dock

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:54:00 +0000

A few years ago I met a mathematician called Norman Fenton at Queen Mary, University of London, who told me about the disturbing problem of miscarriages of justice happening in British courts because jurors, judges and lawyers were failing to understand statistics. The most famous case in recent years is that of of Sally Clark, who was sent to jail for killing her two young children, before mathematics proved that it was likelier that they were both victims of cot death. The solution to bad statistics like this sometimes comes in the form of Bayes' Theorem, a formula that forensic scientists use to calculate the odds of one event given the prior odds of other related events. Number-crunching evidence using Bayesian reasoning, Fenton said, was a much more accurate way of assessing a suspect's guilt (in fact with one of his colleagues, he invented a piece of software that does all this number crunching for you).

But while lots of mathematicians support the use of Bayesian reasoning in courts, judges have historically shown a hostility to formulae for fear of confusing jurors. Explaining Bayes' Theorem to people isn't easy, even with diagrams. Fenton has been an expert witness in some high-profile trials, including that of murderer Levi Bellfield back in 2007, and he knows first hand just how easy it is for people (including scientists) to misinterpret forensic evidence. So I ended up writing a feature about our encounter for New Scientist in 2009, explaining the common statistical fallacies that happen in courts, and how they might be avoided.

Then last year, in an appeal case known as RvT (the redacted judgment is available here), a High Court judge effectively ruled that Bayes' Theorem can't be used at all except in limited circumstances, such as with DNA evidence. Experts have told me on and off the record that this could lead to many more miscarriages of justice in the future. It has sent shockwaves through the forensic science community. Fenton has been so concerned by the ruling that he is forming a research group to figure a way to get this mathematical tool back in the courts. If you'd like to read more about the whole story, check out my feature in The Guardian today.

For anyone who would like to investigate the issue more deeply, there has been a spate of academic publications recently looking at it, including this draft paper by Fenton and his colleague Martin Neil, one in the Criminal Law Review by Redmayne, Roberts, Aitken and Jackson, and a paper in Science & Justice by Berger, Buckleton, Champod and Evett.

How useful are makers to manufacturing?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 07:11:00 +0000

If you're in London anytime during the rest of this year, I strongly recommend you get yourself down to the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington because they have a brilliant exhibition celebrating the power of making, crafting, tinkering and fixing. Curator Daniel Charny has assembled a little bit of everything, from enormous artistic makes, to the ingenious ministerial Red Box (the lock is at the bottom so you can never forget to close it) and personal 3D printers.

I was there last night to see the exhibits and then take part in a panel debate about manufacturing, organised as part of the Battle of Ideas. And to my surprise, it became a pretty heated discussion (and not just because the room had no air conditioning). James Woudhuysen, professor of forecasting and innovation at De Montfort University, said that knitters, crafters and individual makers had no value in real manufacturing because the scale at which they work is just too small. And this left Sandy Black, professor of fashion & textile design & technology at the University of the Arts London, having to defend people who work in sustainable fashion. Meanwhile I was somewhere in the middle: I'm an advocate for big scientific projects and industrial-scale technology, but at the same time I really can see the value in individual makers. Not only are they one end of a manufacturing spectrum that includes all inventors, but they help nurture a culture that values products as more than disposable engines of economic growth.

Claire Fox, the director of the Institute of Ideas, which organised this entire debate series, commented that she neither had the time nor inclination to fix things. But while I don't want to force people to knit their own clothes or mend their own toasters, one aspect of maker culture that I think everyone should experience at least once is the satisfaction that comes from fixing something. I was taught to sew, knit and do DIY by my parents, and I still get a buzz from stretching the lifespan of stuff I own by repairing it, or transforming some piece of clothing with a little imagination. Whether it's driven by necessity or desire, making satisfies a human urge. We are a creative species.

So try it for yourself just once. Make something. You'll love it, I promise.

Festival fun in Delhi

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:09:00 +0000

I'm in New Delhi right now, courtesy of The Hindu newspaper's Lit for Life festival, which was at the weekend. It was really good fun, thanks mostly to the other authors on my panel, Mukul Deva and Anuja Chauhan, who are both bestselling fiction writers here. Thank you to all the Geek Nation fans who turned up. If you'd like to see coverage of the event, check out the The Hindu's website (the photo above of me doing my usual weird hand-waving while I talk is from Monday's newspaper, taken by Rajeev Bhatt).

On Friday I'll be back in London and part of a panel debate at the Victoria and Albert Museum about manufacturing, hosted by the Institute of Ideas. It's free and you don't even need to book a place, so why not come along if you happen to be in the Big Smoke.

What happened to higher education?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:56:00 +0000

When I was at university, a long time ago, tuition fees had just been introduced in England. They were pretty low but enough to have us students up in arms that suddenly higher education was no longer free. Worse than that, it felt as though young people were being penalised for wanting to learn and train to become more productive citizens. Today, things are even worse. We have higher fees and British universities are threatened with closure because of government spending cuts. Meanwhile, in Asia, new universities are being built as I write.

I was asked to write about this topic recently by University Alliance, an organisation that represents universities who are tightly engaged with business and industry recently, which has been producing a report about the value of graduates to economic growth. It may sound obvious, but in a time of huge cuts these things need to be spelled out. You can take a look at my take here, and also those of other contributors, including the legendary Sir Patrick Stewart (yes, from Star Trek).

Geek Nation now out in Zhongwen

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:59:00 +0000

I've just got back from a three-day visit to Yorkshire for the British Science Festival, which was this year held in the salubrious city of Bradford. Last night I ended the trip in Otley to take part in their Science Cafe. Big thanks to Ruth Wilson from the UKRC, Farrah Nazir from the British Science Festival, Alom Shaha who kindly conversed with me for a Geek Nation event at Waterstones on Wednesday night, Marty Jopson from the Otley Science Festival for hosting me, and all the other wonderful people who turned up and were so nice.

In other news, Geek Nation is now available in Chinese! The Taiwanese publishers have gone with a different cover from the Asian and European editions, but it's funky in its own way. I've been sent five copies by my publishers, which sadly owing to my rudimentary Mandarin reading skills are likely to go to waste. So if you would like one then let me know by leaving a comment below. As long as you can send me a stamped-addressed envelope, you can have a copy for free.

I'm off to New Delhi next week for The Hindu newspaper's Lit for Life festival. I'll be speaking on Sunday morning (25th September), at the Habitat Centre on Lodhi Road. It's free and open to everyone, so hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Could we print body parts?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 09:50:00 +0000

Don't get too excited... HP doesn't make bioprinters. This picture is the product of an artist's imagination.

One of the fascinating things about science is how, despite the fact that the public sees scientists as a kind of united force, two respected experts can often hold completely opposing views. Take bioprinting, for example. This is a futuristic technology that has received millions of pounds of research funding in the hope that we will one day be able to print organs, bone and living tissue in the same way that we print fancy plastic objects with 3D printers. I recorded a feature for BBC Click (out this week, listen here) recently for which I interviewed two experts about it. One was from Imperial College London and the other from University College London. The first believed that we are only a decade away from printing living organs, while the second thought it was a near-impossible challenge that may never happen.

There's no denying that bioprinting is an attractive dream. Just imagine all the transplant patients who would be able to roll into surgery and have an organ printed out for them, tailored to their bodies and made using their cultured cells. In reality, though, tissue engineering hasn't been able to grow so much as an ear (you may remember that the famous Vacanti mouse with a living ear growing on its back was really just a piece of ear-shaped cartilage made using a mould). American doctor, Anthony Atala, did manage to reconstruct human bladders about five years ago, but these were built around artificial scaffolds.

Then again, there are lots of technologies around today that people believed would never exist. So if you'd like to form your own opinion on bioprinting, tune into Click on the BBC World Service tonight or listen again online.

Click is ten years old!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:41:00 +0000

Photo courtesy of Paul Clarke (and that's me on the far left).

Some of you may know that I am one of the reporters on BBC World Service radio's technology show, Click (formerly known as Digital Planet, formerly known as Go Digital). Last night was this wonderful show's tenth birthday and so to celebrate, the BBC organised a special live recording in front of an audience at the radio theatre at Broadcasting House in London. I was kindly asked to be a guest to talk about technology in India, and it was a huge treat. Not only did I get to catch up with Digital Planet alumni, including producer Michelle Martin and presenter Tracey Logan, the audience was also treated to the sight of weekly star contributor Bill Thompson in a very smart tuxedo. Presenter Gareth Mitchell was his usual brilliant self too, as was producer Colin Grant, so if you missed the programme please do make a point of listening to it this week on the radio or online. It's worth it just for the sound of musician Sarah Angliss on the theramin, playing the Click theme tune.

Geeking it up in Edinburgh

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:41:00 +0000

I've wanted to go to the Edinburgh Festival since I was a kid. Last year I managed to catch the fireworks at its tail end, but this year I hit the jackpot and was right there in the heart of the action as a guest of the International Book Festival. My first event, with novelist Siddhartha Deb, was sold out and big fun (including Siddhartha admitting to me afterwards that he's a "failed geek" (!) and promising to buy my book). If you'd like to get a flavour then download this week's Guardian Books podcast, in which we tell Claire Armistead what we think about technology and revolution, especially in light of Anna Hazare's anti-corruption campaign in India.

On Sunday I was thrilled to be on a panel with science superstars Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Keith Campbell, debating the future of science in Scotland (although this did turn into more of a discussion about Dolly the cloned sheep and her siblings). What became clear is that journalists and writers play an important part in both encouraging a scientific culture and making sure the public understand science and technology without being afraid. As Keith mentioned, it's easy to skew the facts, which is why it really helps for writers to have a background in science or engineering. That said, the cultural gulf between the humanities and the sciences must be improving, given the great questions we had and how many people turned up. I hope we get to see even more science represented on the programme in Edinburgh next year.

Other than that, I caught a few shows (including the brilliant Bad Bread), ate a couple of tattie scones, drank some great champagne, and wandered around magnificent Edinburgh. Thank you to everyone who came to see me, bought my book, or said hello.

London Science Book Club 4

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:34:00 +0000

Last night was the latest meeting of the London Science Book Club. It should have happened last week but the London riots put the kibosh on that plan. Only two of us managed to turn up yesterday. Nevertheless, we had a lively discussion and plenty of space on our massive table in the empty cafe.

Our pick for this month was Marcus Chown's Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You. It's a lovely little book (fewer than 200 pages) but it does require your absolute concentration. Quantum theory is perhaps the most difficult and mind-bending of all the sciences, and it's particularly tough to make sense of it without the aid of formulae and diagrams... which makes Chown's achievement all the more impressive. That said, I can't say that we understood everything. One of our group read it twice and still wasn't comfortable with explaining the concepts to someone else. I read it once, and even though I felt more enlightened by the end, I still don't really understand the difference between a fermion and a boson either.

Even so, we would definitely recommend this book to others. It comes closer to explaining quantum physics and cosmology in an accessible way than anything else we've read. Plus it has loads of fun quotes (including a great one from Woody Allen) and footnotes (did you know, for example, that black holes didn't become popular amongst researchers until someone gave them their name?). And it has inspired at least one of our group to read up about quantum theory more deeply and research the lives of characters like Thomas Young (of double-slit experiment fame).

Our next book club pick is Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear by Dan Gardner. So look out for our review in October!

Saving the arcade

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:56:00 +0000

I happen to live not far from the London Trocadero near Leicester Square. And as any young Londoner will know, the Trocadero is famous for its games arcade. I spent my 18th birthday there, back when it was still pretty slick (in fact I played Laser Tag there on my 30th birthday last year too). But sadly, over the years it's slowly degraded into something resembling a scene from Blade Runner. The escalators are frequently broken, the candy-strewn floors stick to your feet, and there are machines shoved into corners where machines should never be. And then about a month ago I learned that the legendary Funland at the heart of the Trocadero had given up the ghost altogether... and closed down.

I can't explain why this left my heart so heavy, because I never went to the arcade anymore anyway. But I felt as though I'd lost something important. And this inspired me to record my latest piece for Click, the technology radio show on the BBC World Service, on the future of the games arcade. Home consoles are so impressive these days that arcade designers have found it tough to keep up. In countries like the UK they're being replaced by slot machines (the crack cocaine of gambling) or being ditched altogether.

But don't despair because big gaming companies, including Sega, as well as a few young upstarts are planning to save the arcade. And they were at the Digital Out-of-Home Interactive Entertainment Conference recently to discuss how. To find out their plans, tune into Click tonight at 7.30pm BST or catch it when it goes online on the BBC website.

Extra news: Next week marks the tenth anniversary of Click (I started reporting for it when it was still called Digital Planet, but before that it was called Go Digital) and the producers are organising a special live show from the fabulous radio theatre at Broadcasting House in London, hosted by the wonderful duo, Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson. Among the panel of Click contributors during the show will be me, so please do tune in to the BBC World Service at 7.30pm BST on Tuesday 23rd August.

A free extract... just for you

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 22:49:00 +0000

It's shaping into a really fun summer. I went to my first Skeptics in the Pub meeting in Camden in London last week to talk about Geek Nation. Many thanks to Sid Rodrigues for the invite and for the brilliant questions, not to mention to everyone who sweated it out in the evening heat, bought a book and laughed at my anecdotes.

I have a few more events lined up this year, including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the British Science Festival in Bradford, and Sheffield's Off the Shelf Literary Festival. So book your tickets now because I'd love to see you there. And if you'd like to keep up to speed with what's happening around Geek Nation, including photos and press coverage, then please also join the Facebook group (394 fans and counting!).

In the meantime, my amazing publishers have kindly put up a chunky extract from Geek Nation on their website for free. Yes, you read correctly. Not many people know about this, so I'm sharing it with you, my blog readers, because I know you'll appreciate it the most. For access, just click on the extract link on this page or click here to download the PDF directly.

A Baby Bot is born

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:48:00 +0000

Longtime readers of this blog, both of you, will know that I started my career in television (don't judge me), and specifically as a video journalist. I've actually shot more than a hundred short films and news items in my time, and still make time to do a filmmaking assignment or two even when I'm busy writing books. But now, at the urging of some of my clients and friends, I've decided to turn this bit of my career into a fully-fledged enterprise. And the name of this new company is Baby Bot Productions. The focus is on making video and audio, especially if it has something to do with science and technology, for everyone from small websites to giant universities.

It's an exciting new venture for me, so please copy the link and spread the word!

Making do in India

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 08:12:00 +0000

When I was growing up, I never really noticed how much my parents would make and fix things for themselves. Loads of my dresses were sewn by mum, as were our curtains and pillowcases, and I don't recall a single moment when my dad called in a handyman. I took it for granted that you don't throw stuff away unless you've made every possible attempt to repair it first, and that you leach all possible utility out of every object. I inherited that ethos... I still do a lot of my household DIY and recycle religiously.

But it's only recently that I've discovered what a particularly Indian trait this is. The habit of fixing, tinkering and making do (by hook or by crook) even has its own word: jugaad. And if you'd like to find out more, I've written an article all about it for the India in Transition series for the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. I'd love to know what you, both my blog readers, think so please do leave your comments here.

Big me and the Little Atoms

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:44:00 +0000

I'm a voracious podcast listener, but I have just a few regular favourites and one of them is Little Atoms. It's the science and ideas show that gets all the best guests, asks all the best questions and guarantees to get you thinking. So goodness only knows why they asked me to be a guest. The topic was of course Geek Nation and the hosts were the wonderful Becky Hogge (who has her own book out soon) and the witty Neil Denny (who made my day when he told me afterwards that my book was "brilliant"). If you'd like to hear the show, which was recorded last Friday, then it will be available on iTunes soon or you can download the MP3 on the Little Atoms website. Sadly we had only half an hour so we didn't get a chance to get into all the fun stuff, but just enough to reveal how I stole sugar from the Infosys campus, when I watched a space rocket launch in Trivandrum, and why I think geekiness is cool.

A world full of boys

noreply@blogger.com (Angela Saini) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:05:00 +0000

It's rare to read science journalism that is as journalistic as it is scientific, so I was thrilled to get a review copy of Mara Hvistendahl's new book Unnatural Selection this summer. It investigates the shocking phenomenon of sex selection by parents, mainly in Asia, which has created entire regions with far more men than women. I've always been aware of cultural preferences for boys in countries like India and China, but I had little idea that sex-selective abortion and infanticide were so widespread as to leave the world with millions of missing girls. The entire story, from the experience of mothers to the role played by politicians, is as fascinating as it is deeply disturbing. My review is in the latest issue of New Scientist, and I urge you to read the book if you can.