Jack
Elements … and cholera
I’m very excited that my new book – The Elements: The New Guide to the Building Blocks of Our Universe – is due to be published in just a few days. I have received some copies, and they look great. On a very different note, I have just finished writing a very different book, my first…
Two new element names and two new books
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) confirmed today the new names for the transuranium elements 114 and 116: flerovium (Fl) and livermorium (Lv). The new names were announced in December 2011, but there followed a statutory period of five months during which chemists had a chance to object to the new names.…
A million times smaller?
I don’t know about you, but I always get annoyed with phrases like “a million times smaller”. It has been one of my bugbears for many years. Now you can get annoyed by it, too – and perhaps change the way you do things, if you are a writer too. (Or maybe just get annoyed…
End of the World! (not)
Watch this great, straight-talking, undramatic new video from NASA regarding the claims of the end of the world, which some people have suggested will happen on 21st December 2012.
Futurecade
Recently, as part of its Talk Science initiative, the Science Museum launched a suite of four online games aimed at teenagers, called Futurecade (the name is a contraction of ‘future’ and ‘arcade’). There are four games, each one based on an aspect of science/technology that is shaping or could shape our future. The Science Museum’s own teacher briefing…
New books
I have been very busy … On 31st January 2012, Chartwell Books published Amazing Weather Facts and Trivia – the latest book from my pen (well, my computer keyboard). It is a companion to Amazing Human Body Facts and Trivia, which was published in the summer 0f 2011. I don’t normally blog about new books, but…
Cloud in a bottle
You can hold your very own cloud in your hands – here’s how: 1. Find and empty a plastic fizzy drinks bottle – one of the flexible PET bottles, 2 litres if possible. 2. Put cold water into the bottle, to a depth of between 1 and 2 cm (about half an inch). 3. Light…
Arvind Gupta’s science toys
Check out this page full of amazing videos of quick, simple, cheap science demonstrations – on the site of Arvind Gupta. They’ll make you want to have a go. You should also check out this page filled with ‘science toys’. According to his profile on TED.com, Arvind Gupta is “an Indian toy inventor and populariser…
Tim Minchin, ‘Storm’
I don’t like to divert people away from my website, but you should really watch this in HD, so click on the ‘YouTube’ button at the bottom of the video frame. I think this piece by the talented, intelligent, rational Tim Minchin is, well, poetry:
Astrology and religion … at Bristol?
Yesterday, I went to the wonderful science centre Explore-At-Bristol. There was a healthy half-term buzz, which is great. My six year-old daughter loves the place, which is also great. What was not great, in my opinion, were two items I came across in the gift shop. I was amazed/dismayed to see: 1. A selection of shiny…