Consistent with the Standard Model of particle physics, there is postulated a Higgs field which determines those particles which are massive and those which are not. Photons are massless. Gluons also…

Last weekend, Boston was taken over by the Transhumanists, for the gathering of the 2010 Humanity Plus (H+) Summit at Harvard University. The H+ Summit was two glorious days of information loading,…

BP's Tried And Tested Failures If you have a problem which has been attacked before, you don't try failed methods again unless your name is Homer Simpson - or you are too young to remember the event.…

One thing the film industry get right - and they don't get much right, since romantic comedy behavior in real life is likely to get you a restraining order - is that music evokes moods. French…

Giant freak waves - seriously, that is what oceanographers and physicists call them - are called that because they can appear on the open sea out of nowhere. Researchers from the Ruhr-…

Scientists from the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Collaborative Research Center 746 of the University of Freiburg say they have discovered a new mechanism which plays an…

For our 1951 pick, we have the work of one of the great British writers of sci-fi’s Golden Age. In The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham presents a horror story of giant, ambulatory, flesh-eating…

When Art Meets War If you want to make a good historical movie you should find yourself a good historian. If one of the characters is a singer, make sure they sing in a contemporary style. Now add in…

"If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you" G. Marx

A Message From Nigeria Ghana. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------From the office of the Manager;BARCLAYS BANK GHANA. Attn: [ insert name from recently…

This interlude's theme is 'cynicism'.  Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal covers prehistoric skeptics: and modern-day realism: while Surviving the World looks deeply at the joy in academia: and…

If you've watched any World Cup matches at all (and statistically, if you have not, you are not reading this article) you have been aware of an omnipresent drone in the background - and you might…

A physics professor was telling me yesterday that her daughter was having trouble understanding real and virtual images formed by lenses.  That was until she showed her a real image being formed…

MODIS Rapidfire For Citizen Scientists - #2This is part #2 of a brief explanation of the NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response System - Rapidfire - together with a Howto for citizen scientists.  The…

Since I do educational outreach programs with living Arthropods (referred to below as BUGS!), I have to actually have bugs. Some people think that’s weird. I’m okay with that. I don’t imagine…

To give a link in another topic, I shortly cover the meaning of not so common, but very important term - metahypothesis. Metahypothesis is formed by a number of other hypothesis - when you take some…

A Glossary of Alternative Reality  #1 If you analyse deliberate disinformation deeply - and manage to retain your sanity - you tend to observe some fascinating nuances and psychological tricks.…

In team sports it is often difficult to determine the value of an individual.   Some sports can do it easily enough, like baseball(1) or basketball, but during the World Cup, casual fans who…

In most cultures, mothers are allowed to be proud of their off-spring, aren't they? In any case, I am about to brag shamelessly - and beyond - about my son Eilev (19). My son, who one beautiful day…

Clausewitz On Science Clausewitz On War - yes.  But Clausewitz On Science? Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz is famous for his book Vom Kriege - On War.  In that book he is very…