Climate Change: Almost one entire year of record breaking months

The September numbers are out, it is now official. Starting in October 2015, every single month except one has been a record shattering month. October 2015 was the warmest October since monthly record keeping began in 1880, November 2015 was the warmest ever November, and so on for almost every single month. There was just … Read more

Can we really colonise MARS?

Elon Musk has outlined his plan to send one million people off to colonize Mars. Not only is he being sincere about this ambition, but he also has a viable plan to get there. The astronomer Phil Plait has written a response to Mr Musk’s plans in Slate, and as you read it, you can almost hear … Read more

Milestone achieved – Now we put the Paris Agreement into effect

Back in December 2015 as many as 174 nations signed what is now known as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, but that is simply ink on paper and is quite frankly meaningless in that it did not commit anybody to do anything. The far more important aspect is that it marked a beginning of a … Read more

2016 Nobel Prize – Chemistry – Tiny Machines win

And so today it is on to the third of the big three Nobel Prizes. The announcement of a Nobel award is always a surprise. If you ever hear about a claim that somebody was once nominated for a Nobel prize but did not actually win, then unless it was a nomination that is fifty … Read more