Last year I finally got round to reading two out of the three in this series that was given away with copies of The Guardian in, oh… 2010? The two were Introducing Philosophy and Introducing postmodernism. One was good, one was not. This year I finally read the third one: Introducing Quantum Theory. I don’t… Continue reading Book review: Introducing Quantum Theory
Way back at the beginning of 2016 I wrote two pieces called Paraben free and Sulphate free. I always meant to write this third piece, Phthalate free but somehow got distracted and it’s only recently occurred to me that I never got around to it. So, here we go. Phthalate free is a label that… Continue reading Pthalate free?
I am bad at watching TV. I’ve never seen an episode of Game of Thrones. I gave up halfway through season three of Breaking Bad. I’ve watched the first four episodes of The West Wing about five times and have never yet made it to the fifth episode. Binge watching makes me feel ill and… Continue reading Book review: Earth – The Power of the Planet
Last week, after work, I found myself wandering down to the English Speaking Union, of all places. A strange enough venue (and Google Maps told me that the Edinburgh Toastmasters meet there, though how it knows that I can’t guess). I was there to see a lecture by Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell. I am… Continue reading Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Careering Through Astronomy
Why do they happen? Perhaps you know exactly what I’m talking about, but perhaps not. Sometimes I’ll paint my nails, a miracle will occur and I’ll not smudge a single one of them. I’ll feel very smug about my perfect manicure and then, when I wake up the next morning, bubbles will have formed in… Continue reading Bubbles in nail varnish
Last Friday I attended a conference called ReConEvent. It was all about “Publishing for Early Career Researchers – Immortalisation, Recognition and Metrics.” I know, I know, I’ll be a scientist my whole life but, coincidence of coincidences, last Friday was also the last day when I could technically call myself a researcher. Nevertheless, I had… Continue reading ReConEvent 2017
If I tried to tell you when I acquired this book, I would fail. It seems like its been on my shelves, waiting patiently, for quite some time, but exactly how long is a mystery. I have a bad habit of putting books off for all kinds of reasons, and since this is a mathematics… Continue reading Book review: The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets
Remember how a couple of weeks ago I went to a science-themed pub quiz and my team won? Yeah, well I remember. I remember knowing the origin of the equals sign, for example. I remember being pretty smug about it all, which is easy to remember because I’m still feeling smug. Can you tell? Ok,… Continue reading Glasgow Skeptics Talk: Homeopathy in the UK
Every month I do a quick round up of at least five of the new things I’ve been trying. I find it’s a fun way of looking back on what I’ve been getting up to and a good way to keep track of things. I’ll put links to previous months’ posts at the end of today’s… Continue reading New things I tried in March
A long time ago I discovered the Folio Society. They make incredibly beautiful editions of books and for a while, I collected them. At this time they often had offers that would bring the average price down a little, which was great because books like this aren’t cheap to make, but eventually, the prices rose… Continue reading Book review: Relativity – The Special and the General Theory
In Becky's Head 