Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
I’m in Ireland at the moment, and looking forward to a visit to the natural History museum today in Merrion Sq … as an aside, if you are here and free, then today is a special day in conjunction with the Dublin City of Science to highlight how the collections are used by scientists. … What We Do … Read more
There is some really encouraging news in the Guardian today concerning the highly annoying pay-walls that lock a lot of very interesting things away. In a pre-internet era it all made sense. Various publishers took responsibility for the printing and distribution of credible peer-reviewed journals. That obviously involved costs, so they charge, and of course … Read more
A very interesting paper is available from the Cornell University Library entitled “Gods as Topological Invariants“. The abstract reads … We show that the number of gods in a universe must equal the Euler characteristics of its underlying manifold. By incorporating the classical cosmological argument for creation, this result builds a bridge between theology and … Read more
As a parody of “Intelligent design”, Keith Gilmour, a UK-based secondary school teacher set up a website called “The Centre for Unintelligent design” last year. In response Creationists have been popping up and scribbling a few daft claims to him to put him right … except what they are claiming is simply making them look even sillier … Read more
Not only is today Pi day, but right now the time is Pi. Are you thinking ???. OK … pi = 3.14159…. but you knew that (unlike the folks from Indiana in 1897). Today is 14th March, or to use the US format … 3.14 … and right now (as I publish this, it is … Read more
It was once thought that only humans used tools, but no longer. More and more examples are being discovered in other species. Examples include … chimpanzees in the Fongoli savanna sharpen sticks to use as spears when hunting (2007) – This is considered to be the first evidence of systematic use of weapons in a … Read more