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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...

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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,

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Machines of Tender Loving Grace (3)

Machines of Tender Loving Grace (3)

Jun 07 2011 | comment(s)

Here, for completeness, is the last in this group about the BBC series
 

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

A series of films exploring the idea that we have been colonised by the machines that we have built, seeing everything in the world today through the eyes of computers.

 

The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey

Gas Is No Laughing Matter?

Gas Is No Laughing Matter?

Jun 06 2011 | comment(s)

A pleasure it is, when Chemistry World drops through my letterbox each month, to read the Historical Profile therein.

This month (June 2011) featured the discovery of nitrous oxide, aka laughing gas, in No Laughing Matter, by John Mann, emeritus professor of chemistry, Queen’s University Belfast.  The caption declares:
Had it not been for nitrous oxide’s subversion as a recreational folly, its utility as an anaesthetic could have been uncovered much earlier.
Is television intrinsically Left-Wing?

Is television intrinsically Left-Wing?

May 31 2011 | comment(s)

This morning I read this in our Daily Telegraph:

It is television, not just the people who make it, which has a Left-wing bias


Here is the core of the article
Machines of Tender Loving Grace (2)

Machines of Tender Loving Grace (2)

May 31 2011 | comment(s)

I’ve now watched the second of three films in the series.  To recap, the main title is:

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace


A series of films about how humans have been colonised by the machines they have built. Although we don't realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers.

Now we have had:

The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts

Machines of Tender Loving Grace (1)

Machines of Tender Loving Grace (1)

May 29 2011 | comment(s)

I’ve watched the first of three films in an interesting series.  The main title is:

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace


A series of films about how humans have been colonised by the machines they have built. Although we don't realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers.

The first episode was:
Conflation of Ignorances

Conflation of Ignorances

May 15 2011 | comment(s)

An interesting bit that came my way, which I will let stand by itself: