Better than the A-Team, it’s COP21! Never have so many World leaders been in the same place on the same day. This time, they have just ten years to make a difference! Could the problems be solved? Will the World finally be saved?
Continue reading COP21 – The Return Les “Entreprenieurs” in Paris
23rd October 2015. The ‘strongest ever’ hurricane recorded in the Western hemisphere is about to make a “potentially catastrophic” landfall on the western coast of Mexico. This is hurricane Patricia. At that time, the super storm is a Category 5. Weather scientists predict 20 inches of rain and 200 miles per hour winds…
Continue reading On the Trail of Hurricane Patricia
Mars is not the dry, arid planet we once thought it was. Under certain circumstances, liquid water has been found. NASA’s announcement has the potential of turning some Red Planet theories on their heads…
Continue reading Mars Has Water!
A new online citizen science initiative, Fossilfinder, is inviting ordinary members of the public to help hunt for fossils in the Kenyan desert. The volunteers will have the opportunity to sift through one million images from the arid Turkana Basin – a key area for fossils of early human ancestors.
Continue reading Armchair Fossil Hunting in the Turkana Basin
With his wind-swept mane, the inimitable Richard Feynman looked devilishly handsome. And he darn-diddly knew it too! As for Fritz Haber, Rosalind Franklin and Neil deGrasse Tyson, they were the original hipsters. That’s according to BuzzFeed anyway…
Yes, modern-day hipsters take heed. BuzzFeed – the undisputed masters of click-bait – even made it a feature in unique BuzzFeed style: 11 Pictures That Prove That Scientists Were The Original Hipsters.
Marie Curie (1867-1934) – the ‘foreign student‘ who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She didn’t shy away from a bold pattern.
Fritz Haber (1868-1934) figured out the method used in industry to synthesise ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen gases. Known as the Haber-Bosch process, the food production for half the World’s current population depends on this method for producing nitrogen fertilisers. So, you wouldn’t dream of taking a dig at his glasses…
Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) may be considered to be the “father of the atomic bomb”, but you wouldn’t think of criticising his tie.
Stylish Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was unravelling the mysteries of DNA structure, long before anyone even heard of DNA.
And Neil deGrasse Tyson? The only thing hotter than his facial hair are the supernovae he studied in his field of Astrophysics…
If you thought physicists weren’t known for their good dress sense, think again!
Once upon a time, Europe was almost covered by one giant forest. Now, it’s almost entirely fields and grasslands. Humans are controlling tree densities. Understanding the global extent and distribution of forest trees is central to our understanding of the terrestrial biosphere.
Continue reading Three Trillion Trees
Astronomers have found the smallest exoplanet yet to be directly photographed by a telescope on Earth. A methane-shrouded gas giant. A young Jupiter…
Continue reading Exoplanet ‘Young Jupiter’ 51 Eridani bLet’s talk about size… 😉 How big are the objects floating in our Universe and how big can they get? Starting with a “big” object, our very own Moon… Embark on a tour of space… A tour of our Universe…
Continue reading Size Matters… in Astrophysical Terms
Look into my eyes. The eyes, the eyes. Not around the eyes. Don’t look AROUND the eyes. Look INTO my eyes. The eyes… [click] You’re not under! But… Can you read my mind?
Continue reading Eyes of the Beholder
Taking a radically different experimental approach, EPFL scientists were able to take the first ever snapshot of light behaving simultaneously both as a wave AND as a stream of particles. You need light to take a photograph. But how do you take a photograph of light?
Continue reading Seeing the Light Fantastic – Particles, Waves and All