Archives for Science
On the OLPC Movement... (February 20, 2008) A couple of months ago I was asked by Icon Magazine to write a review of the OLPC XO laptop for the developing world. You can read the finished article in their January issue or on their site (OLPC review...
On Wattson and Electrisave... (November 12, 2006) Thanks to a fascinating conversation on haddock the other day, I'm now completely obsessed with a brand new class of personal lifestyle gizmos - a class that is very much in sync with the emergent energy puritanism that I find...
On the Politicisation of Science... (FOO '06) (September 6, 2006) One talk from FOO Camp 06 started off fascinating me and end up driving me to distraction with frustration. Chris Csikszentmihályi from the MIT Media Lab did a talk about the implicit politics that lies behind all technology. Initially I...
On the perception of the colours of Mars... (May 16, 2006) I was looking at a post about the relative proportions of various planets today and it reminded me of a thought I'd had a couple of years ago and hadn't ever explored in depth. It was based on a stupid...
On Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science"... (September 12, 2005) While I'm talking about the Guardian (reports from friends within the printing presses are that it's looks beautiful), i thought I should probably mention an article that I read on Thursday last week which I thought was one of the...
Science (and evolution) is not a matter of faith... (September 1, 2005) You know what the real problem is with Intelligent Design? You know why it seems impossible to make it clear to people why it is such total bunk? It's because the battle was conceded years ago in a parallel argument....
Now available: Mr Webb's Mind Hacks! (December 4, 2004) My work colleague and R&D partner has a book out (with Tom Stafford)! It's called Mind Hacks and it's from O'Reilly in their Hacks series. So when you've finished fiddling with your Tivo or with Google's API, now you can...
On scientific truth and Christian truth... (July 16, 2004) In the middle of an article about the way that the religious right have interfered with scientific work in the US, I find a troubling paragraph: At a time when biology is poised to undergo a fundamental revolution, the US...
On adaptive success and theories of homosexuality... (January 19, 2004) The latest issue of New Scientist contains an article - "The In Crowd" - that is both profoundly interesting and yet totally unavailable online. Gradually, I'm delighted to say, this situation is becoming more rare and more of a surprise...
Enhanced reality: Noise in Space? (September 28, 2003) So it occurred to me (while watching some dumb sci-fi TV series set in space) that maybe spaceships that make noise in a vacuum isn't such a dumb idea after all. I mean, obviously they wouldn't (couldn't) make any noise,...
Reactions to "The Blank Slate" (Part Two) (June 20, 2003) Some really interesting stuff in Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate about responsibility, free will and guilt: "When we say that we hold someone responsible for a wrongful act, we expect him to punish himself - by compensating the victim, acquiescing...
Reactions to "The Blank Slate" (Part One) (June 9, 2003) I'm currently reading Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate - recently published in paperback. Even though I'm only a fraction of the way through it, I can already recommend it. Part of me is prejudiced, of course. During the time I...
Steven Pinker and the Perfectibility of Man... (May 8, 2003) There's fragments of a paper in my head. I need to find ways of noting this stuff down that doesn't collide with my writing on this site. It goes back before Clay, to a place of darkness that is somewhere...
On America, Science and Fundamentalist Christianity... (April 10, 2003) Probably the one thing I understand least about America is its relationship with religion. American is a country that (i) is particularly known for not being hide-bound by convention in science or business and (ii) often demonstrates an astonishing (and...
