Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Above is a fabulous picture of a grinning female macaque – so who actually owns the copyright for this? Is it the person who owns the camera, or the person who borrowed the camera and took the picture? In this case, because it is in dispute … the answer is supposedly nobody and so it is claimed … Read more
While in the US I had the privilege of listening to Nagin Cox from the mission operations team for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) – NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover. Who? OK, first a bit of background on her … Nagin graduated from Cornell University with a BS in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering and a BA in Psychology … Read more
Having been in the US for both TAM and also some hiking, I thought that it might be fun to spend the last night in a hotel on the strip in Las Vegas before flying out the next day. It was apparently a good deal, so what could possible be wrong with this idea? Well, … Read more
I recall attending a talk by science writer Simon Singh in which amongst other fascinating things, he explained that Katie Melua, the jazz/blues singer and songwriter, had a single “Nine Million Bicycles” where the lyrics were as follows: We are 12 billion light years from the edge, that’s a guess, no one can ever say it’s true, but … Read more
Cognitive Dissonance is of course the term used to describe the mental stress that will arise when an existing belief is confronted with information that conflicts with the belief. It is perhaps logical and rational to assume that things should play out like this … For example somebody declares … “The world will end tomorrow“ When tomorrow … Read more
Well I’m back from my travels in the wilderness, so let’s begin slowly with an easy question – Who is the one person that is most probably going to fool you? You can most probably guess the right answer, but let me illustrate it anyway. One evening I just happened to by in a town … Read more