A mother who has refused to consent to urgent cancer treatment for her seven year old son has had her decision overturned in court. Sally Roberts had sought to deny her son, Neon, radiotherapy as part of his treatment plan for a cancerous brain tumor on the grounds she considered it a danger to his long term future with …
Last week saw the sad passing of Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the moon. He died from complications after surgery to relieve four blocked coronary arteries. US President Barack Obama summed up this great man in one wonderfully simple phrase; ”Neil Armstrong was a hero not just of his time, but of …
A tiny but shocking article appeared to today’s Times newspaper, a small column of text summarising a much more in depth article by David Colquhoun, available on his own website. Last month Queen Mary University announced it was going to have to tighten its belt and cut the number of staff. This is hardly surprising given …
A couple of weeks ago the spacecraft Voyager 1 reached the edge of the solar system, this pokey little neighbourhood we call home. In doing so it has extended it’s own record as being the furthest man-made object from planet earth. There isn’t exactly a threshold or boundary at which it can be said to …
It’s hard for me to truly feel any affiliation with the Green Party, despite the fact I share many of their aims. Attempts to curb global warming, decreasing dependency on fossil fuels and just generally taking more care with the world’s flora and fauna are worthy goals. The problem comes when you begin to start …
One of the unfair criticisms often levelled at the god-less is the idea that ours is a world of grey, harsh, rationality. A world view that offers no comfort, no sense of excitement, no sense of grandeur. Many writers and prominent atheists go to great lengths to refute this, without making too much headway into the minds …
Gliese 436 B is my new favourite planet. Not because of it’s catchy name, but because of one of the most unusual properties found anywhere in our solar system. Gliese 436 B is a Neptune sized ice world, yet orbits its star at a very toasty 4.3 million miles. That’s almost fifteen times closer to …
Ever wondered just how much it would cost to build your very own Death Star? Me neither. Some students from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania have done themselves, and university students the world over, no favours in trying to shed academia’s reputation for outlandish impractical research. The number crunching by a team of economics students from the …
Recently I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Richard Wilkinson, co-author of the book The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better for Everyone. Not really knowing what to expect, other than possible death by statistics and quite a bit of sociology mixed in, I was pleasantly surprised by the very engaging lecture that was given. The basic premise of the lecture …
This is a long time favourite article of mine, I seem to find it just as funny as the year before. It’s origins on the internet are unknown, even the urban legend website Snopes.com can only trace it back as far as the now defunct magazine SPY in 1990, which is the best source I …
