Category: Science
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Apollo 11: James Burke and Helen Sharman
Earlier this week I was thrilled to be able to go to the Science Museum where they were both screening Apollo 11 on their IMAX screen, and following it with a conversation between Helen Sharman and James Burke. Burke, now in his eighties, is as sharp as ever, and it seems a real shame that…
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Saturn – Farewell Cassini
Farewell Cassini. You have been wonderful! On Friday, just ahead of Cassini finally burning up in the atmosphere of Saturn as the probe ended its 13 years orbiting the planet, its rings and its moons, the mission’s Twitter feed sent this. Look up tonight & see Saturn in the sky. Tomorrow, our spacecraft will be…
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Hans Rosling – Forming His World View on Facts; Not Feelings
In my recent RAJAR piece, I made reference to the sad news that Professor Hans Rosling had died. Rosling was a Swedish professor of global health, and had found fame in a series of videos and programmes – notably beginning with a widely shared TED talk – that elucidated stories behind data in a way…
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Ada Lovelace and the Cosmonauts
Come on. Admit it! This sounds like some kind of awesome steampunk mashup – perhaps a graphic novel. Actually it refers to two different exhibitions currently on display at the Science Museum, and that I’m finally posting about. Ada Lovelace – the “Enchantress of Number” – was a friend of Charles Babbage and can be…
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Horizon
This year BBC2 is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and as part of those celebrations, its long running science programme, Horizon, is also celebrating being 50. I must admit that until the last week or so, and I hadn’t known that Horizon started right at the birth of the channel. To celebrate its half-century, Horizon has…
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The Future of The Sky at Night
In the last day or so, there’s suddenly been a bit of press speculation about the future of The Sky at Night – the BBC’s long running monthly astronomy programme. And when I say long running, I mean it. It’s been going since 1957. In some ways this isn’t surprising. It always felt to me…
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A Fruitless Early Morning
The alarm was set for 4.00am. I’d bought some Baader solar paper. I’d made a solar filter for my camera, essentially following these instructions. I was already for the last Transit of Venus that’ll be visible from Earth until 2117, and therefore, my lifetime. Sadly, I hadn’t counted on the wonderful British summer. Actually, that’s…
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James Burke
If you’re old enough, you might know who James Burke is. He was the presenter of a TV series that had an enormous impact on me as a child – Connections. First broadcast in 1978, I think my viewings came in later repeats – especially (if my memory serves me) during school holidays when the…
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ISS
The International Space Station (ISS) is very visible at the moment, appearing as an often very bright, yet very fast-moving star. Taking advantage of a location that has much less light pollution than home, I took the above long exposure photo this evening showing the transit of the ISS across the sky, passing through Leo.…
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Yuri Gagarin
On April 12th it will have been 50 years since Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in outer space. There are a fair few programmes coming up devoted to this anniversary, so I thought I’d link to a few. First of all, here’s a great piece from Robin McKie in The Observer a…
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2001: A Space Odyssey – Live at the Royal Festival Hall and the See Further Festival
2010 is the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society. We’ve had a special series of In Our Time earlier in the year, the president of the Society, Martin Rees has given the Reith Lectures, and there’ve been numerous talks and lectures. Over the weekend, the Royal Society’s annual summer exhibition moved to the Southbank Centre…
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Breaking The Code and Alan Turing
Today, had he lived, would have been Alan Turing’s 98th birthday. Last night at the BFI Southbank, there was a great double bill featuring the excellent TV version of Hugh Whitmore’s play about Turing – Breaking the Code. Regular readers will perhaps recall that I saw a theatrical production of this play back in November.…
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The Eerie Silence
Given where I work, there really is no excuse for me not to go to more of the Royal Society’s public lectures. So back in January I attended an interesting sounding lecture entitled “The eerie silence: are we alone in the universe?” The room where they hold the lectures was absolutely packed, and I was…