Banner
Carbon — to capture or not to capture

This came up on 2nd November 2024 (give or take a day), a broadcaster objecting to a carbon capture...

The Azolla Event: when is a fern not a fern?

...

Betelgeuse, Gamow, and a Big Red Horse

There has been a lot of talk recently of Betelgeuse possibly going supernova this century or not...

Climate Change, the Walrus and the Carpenter

I have recently watched two videos on climate change by Sabine Hossenfelder.  The first one...

User picture.
picture for Hank Campbellpicture for Hontas Farmerpicture for Sascha Vongehrpicture for Helen Barrattpicture for Patrick Lockerbypicture for Sean Gibbons
Robert H OlleyRSS Feed of this column.

Until recently, I worked in the Polymer Physics Group of the Physics Department at the University of Reading.

I would describe myself as a Polymer Morphologist. I am not an astronaut,

... Read More »

 Blogroll
Blooming Botany (3A)

Blooming Botany (3A)

Jul 02 2011 | comment(s)

Botany: A Blooming History


And now we come to part three of this series

Blooming Botany (1B)

Blooming Botany (1B)

Jul 01 2011 | comment(s)

Botany: A Blooming History


And now we return to part one of this series

Blooming Botany (2)

Blooming Botany (2)

Jun 24 2011 | comment(s)

Now we come to the second part of the series

Botany: A Blooming History


entitled

Blooming Botany (1A)

Blooming Botany (1A)

Jun 18 2011 | comment(s)

When I was a teenager, my two scientific passions were astronomy and botany.  However, at my school in the early 1960s, one could either do A-levels in Mathematics - Physics - Chemistry (Science A) or Chemistry – Botany - Zoology (Science B).  I chose the former option, being very much put off by medicine which was more or less entailed with the latter.  Botany still is a scientific passion – if I were time-transported back to the Jurassic I would be eager to investigate the flora, leaving others of the party to keep a watch-out for dinosaurs.
Dante in the Scientific Inferno

Dante in the Scientific Inferno

Jun 13 2011 | comment(s)

The topic of Dante came up recently here in a comment stream following an article on parsley.  So I am taking this opportunity to share with you two of my favourite bits.

First, from Canto XVI of Paradiso
Killer sprouts?

Killer sprouts?

Jun 10 2011 | comment(s)

While shopping earlier today, I came across these:

 
Many of you will, I expect, have heard of the recent E.Coli outbreak in Germany.  Today, we learn from BBC news

German tests link bean sprouts to deadly E. coli
New data released in Germany strongly suggests that locally produced bean sprouts were, as suspected, the source of the deadly E. coli outbreak.