Zoonomian

Galileo: Genius – just don’t ask him how his telescope works

Aspects of the lives of famous people inevitably get magnified, diminished, distorted or simply lost with the passing years. That’s why we need respected scholars with the learning and gravitas of Professor William Shea who, speaking recently at the Royal Geological Society, took us – somewhat teasingly but with due respect – beyond the accepted caricature [...]

One Forest Fire Too Close to Home

South Western California represents one of the world’s most bio-diverse habitats. The San Gabriel Mountains, north of Los Angeles and south of the Mojave desert, are home to large mammals: including deer, bear, mountain lion and bobcat. Raccoon and skunk are stealthy night-time visitors to the back gardens of residents, who by day enjoy the [...]

Creation

The film Creation went on general release in the UK today, and as I’m just back from a lunchtime viewing, here are a few thoughts on the movie while it’s still fresh in my mind. To cut to the chase: enjoyable film, with great performances from Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as his [...]

Sprinting is Good for the Heart (but not so good for the planet)

Inevitably, spring cleaning and winnowing of the paper archives throws up blasts from the past – often in the form of faded, pre-digital-age photographs. They waft the embers of dormant memories. This memory concerns a charity drive I made with my brother 19 years ago in support of the British Heart Foundation. The Round Britain [...]

Zoonomian Lives!

As I haven’t posted anything for a while, this is just to say I’m still here (yes, sorry), and normal service – whatever that is – will be resumed as soon as possible. Anyhow, photos are easy ! So here are three I took at Santa Barbara Zoo last summer, including the inspiration for Mac’s [...]

Religious Diversity on Twitter

Somebody has put a survey up on Twitter asking people to declare what religion they belong to. The classifications are listed below. It’s not a brilliant graph, but you can see some sort of distribution. I’m including this in a science flavoured blog because there seems to be an ongoing debate about science and its [...]

Kids Leave Dirty Footprints

Want to reduce your emissions? Forget about the gas guzzler, holidaying at home, or buying local produce; cut your “carbon legacy” and have fewer children, says new research. As with all my posts related to conservation and sustainability, you can read more of this here at Conservation Today

Le “cadavre exquis” sur la science – À vous de jouer!

Latest News: The video of Exquisite Corpse of Science won Imagine Science Films’ ‘Film of the Week’ Competition. Cool huh? For latest status of the project and instructions for taking part, CLICK HERE (English version here) (Merci à Evren Kiefer pour l’assistance dans la traduction de l’anglais au français) Merci à tous ceux qui ont envoyé des images (et [...]

Exquisite Corpse of Science – Week 1

Latest News: The video of Exquisite Corpse of Science won Imagine Science Films‘ ‘Film of the Week’ Competition. Cool huh? For latest status of the project and instructions for taking part, CLICK HERE It’s just over a week since I invited the world to take part in the Exquisite Corpse of Science project. It’s very simple: you send [...]

The Exquisite Corpse of Science – It Begins!

I can’t resist giving you a taster of where the Exquisite Corpse of Science is heading – in this case with just the first two pictures I’ve received. Joerg Heber and Bill Weedmark – good job! This is clearly a low resolution image that you won’t gain anything by zooming in to. When I get a [...]