We benefit a lot from the discoveries made by science. But we can also benefit from the way that science thinks. David Brookes hinted at this in an article last week in the Herald Tribune about tools for thinking. For instance, when an issue has many facets we try to take a “holistic view”. We try to…
Apart from drawing considerable satisfaction from the thoughtful exchanges below on nuclear power and the Japanese Tsunami I am struck by how different (and better) the debate is then it would have been some years ago. The people and the media in Japan are handling this much better than the media here where even the…
Lady Tizzy raised a serious point of frustration reently about the payment barriers that scientific and other academic journals put up to block access to research. It’s a fascinating issue because the research publishing world is changing and almost everyone wants to see research freely available to a wide audience. But publishing peer reviewed papers…
Stephen Hawkins is not only a great scientist but also a really good communicator. You may agree or disagree with his assessment on the origin of the universe but it makes compelling reading. I will be buying and reading the book as soon as I can. I have to declare my own view. I have…
The House of Lords is settling the new membership of its Select Committees, all of which fell into abeyance with the general election. There are 16 of them, and the European Union one has 7 subcommittees. I am pleased to have been appointed a member of the House of Lords Communications Committee, the remit of…
