September 2012
1 post
August 2012
3 posts
Greenest Government Ever? - Cameron's Tories still...
When it comes to UK progress in the domain of all things green, this last week has been a little rocky. Firstly, over 200 NGOs, businesses large and small, along with academic experts, have united behind a call for the government to clean up our ‘confused energy policy landscape’. The letter, signed by members from the NFU, Npower renewables, the Co-operative Group, along with old green hands...
I am on Wordpress as off today.
http://scienceisourfuture.wordpress.com/
June 2012
1 post
May 2012
1 post
Ducks are disappearing from our seas – WWT calls...
Long-tailed duck, James Lees
Numbers of seven species of sea duck have dropped by up to 65% in Northern Europe in the last 15 years, including some that winter off the UK’s coasts, particularly long-tailed duck and velvet scoter.
The mysterious nature of sea ducks and the challenges in monitoring their numbers have meant that the situation had gone largely unnoticed.
The UK coast is one key...
March 2012
7 posts
I managed to find my way onto BIG's Newsletter.. →
Following Bath Taps (see blog posts below), I find myself thrust onto BIG (British Interactive Group’s) website.
7 tags
Bristol Green Capital: Cleaning up our act
IF BRISTOL is to win EU Green Capital in 2014, we need to improve our waste management significantly. Not that we don’t have a good track record, after all we send less to landfill than Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham (which has been a recent cultural comparison) and Sheffield. At last night’s public meeting about Bristol’s waste management future, Councillor Gary...
Bath Taps Into Science: Alex's view.
Here is the link to a blog on Bath Taps by my UWE colleague Alex. He coordinated the event, I simply turned up and helped! My thoughts can be found on a previous blog post below (somewhere, maybe).
http://captainelaboration.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/post-hoc-bath-taps-into-science/
Science Communication Unit @UWE: A Centre of...
Just a quick note to any who read this blog and wonder what science communication is or why/where it’s important. As a student recipient of its expertise, I have a bias anyway, but apparently it’s official. University of the West of England’s Science Communication Unit is now ranked as a centre of excellence. It is hard to say what that really means outside academia, but it...
How does that work? Science and the minds of...
The last couple of days has taught me a few valuable lessons.
The first is that working with children is NOT for the faint of heart. Nor is it for those who have energy deficiencies of one kind or another, which I guess is most teenagers and adults. Despite it taking all of your energy, and much of your courage and imagination, I think it’s pretty good fun. Teaching is probably the wrong...
6 tags
Nuclear Technology: safe, efficient, low-carbon...
Nuclear Technology: safe, efficient, low-carbon energy generation Despite its chequered past, nuclear energy is an important feature of world wide and UK electricity and power generation. According to Dr Paul Dorfman at Warwick Business School, the UK could soon emerge as Europe’s lone player in nuclear energy, as Germany, producer of a sixth of European energy, makes good its commitment to...
5 tags
Robotics in the South West. (Originally for...
One of Bristol’s beacons of innovation, the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), welcomed cities’ minister Greg Clark to the purpose-built facility at the University of the West of England’s (UWE) Frenchay campus in Bristol last month (February 2012). A joint initiative that partners Bristol University and UWE, the Bristol Robotics Laboratory was founded in 2005, and is the largest robotics facility...
February 2012
2 posts
Green lights all the way – Bristol secures unique...
Everywhere you look in the current climate, the story is the same: job losses, soaring energy prices, and the rising cost of living in general. There is also a growing demand for local and national government to take more control over certain things, greener energy solutions being a major one. Bristol, with its long standing reputation as a centre for innovation, is pioneering a new- style,...
Science in Society: Real Talk from Alice Roberts
I think Alice Roberts is wonderful. I am slightly biased, as a fellow Bristolian, but my opinion is definitely certified by an interview with the Guardian last week ( pg. 33, 31/01/2012). Her recent appointment as professor of public engagement in science at Birmingham University is great news, and she definitely comes to some conclusions I think the science communication world would agree with...
December 2011
4 posts
Now here's why scientists ain't trusted by the...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/8967034/Dutch-laboratory-creates-mutant-bird-flu-sparking-terrorism-fears.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Read this article. Dutch biologists have apparently managed to mutate the H5N1 strand of avian influenza, giving rise to the belief that a mutant virus could kill hundred more because of a new ability to migrate ...
anyone remember arsenic based life forms? →
Willetts help? - Is open access the way forward...
Forgive the title, but awful puns aside, the issue of whether publicly funded scientific research is made available to the public is an interesting and arguably important one. The Guardian story which sparked my interest was published at the end of last week (8/12/11), and outlines cabinet minister David Willetts plans to demand the results of “publicly funded scientific research must be...
1 tag
Sandwich gone stale? Government wake up call over...
Having read a piece this morning through the BBC website about national government realising that it needs to do something about large pharmaceutical companies collapsing UK sites, I am amazed to some degree that this hasn’t been coming for a while. This piece focused on US multinational Pfizer shutting its Sandwich site in Kent, which caused 2000 workers to lose their jobs. I myself...
November 2011
9 posts
a friend of mine at Nottingham University, on... →
3 tags
Scientific Kitty; some nice writing →
2 tags
how people in science see each other →
7 tags
October: The new month for science on TV?
Science and television do not always mix. As a scientist I often meet the idea of news features or full length programmes about science with excitement (mainly because I think I know about it and other people in the room don’t); only to find I either really do know everything that’s explained, or that there is just very little explanation full stop. In short, Horizon has never been for people like...
Nanotech vehicles? →
Nano-technological wonders are the way forward it seems, they now penetrate research from climate change to computers and medicine and materials. This piece of molecular assembly research reminds me of pulses of light being used to make and break roxtane like nano structure rings for molecular logic circuits.
John Edwards' on the Toast Sandwich →
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/oct/27/... →
Current BBC Two Series: Origins of Us →
Introduction
In a typically pretentious fashion, I aim to use this blog to exhibit my work, written or otherwise. My main interest, as a Masters student of Science Communication, is to, well, communicate science. On here will be reviews on TV/ radio and books, as well as links to internet based curios about science or technology.
I’m based in Bristol, England.
Follow me on twitter:...
