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The Azolla Event: when is a fern not a fern?

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Betelgeuse, Gamow, and a Big Red Horse

There has been a lot of talk recently of Betelgeuse possibly going supernova this century or not...

Climate Change, the Walrus and the Carpenter

I have recently watched two videos on climate change by Sabine Hossenfelder.  The first one...

A Very Large Hadron Collider?

Frontpage image: Illustration of spherical explosion (kilonova) of two neutron stars (AT2017gfo/GW170817)...

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Robert H OlleyRSS Feed of this column.

Until recently, I worked in the Polymer Physics Group of the Physics Department at the University of Reading.

I would describe myself as a Polymer Morphologist. I am not an astronaut,

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Chimp homicide?

Chimp homicide?

Apr 19 2012 | comment(s)


Recently, Real Clear Science drew our attention to Chimps show lethal side, about incidents where chimps kill other chimps.  Or “apes kill each other”, as the article actually says, but in my more hyper-logical frame of mind that sounds a bit like “pistols for two, coffee for none.”

However, the article (and the link to it from RCS) then goes on to refer to ‘chimp homicides’.  It becomes quickly apparent that they are not referring to humans being killed by chimps.
Bad Advice And Bombs

Bad Advice And Bombs

Apr 07 2012 | comment(s)

A few months ago, I read Electric Universe by David Bodanis (ISBN 1400045509).  There are two chapters on radar during the Second World War, #7 dealing with Britain’s defences and #8 dealing with the area bombing of Germany, a tactic down to ‘Bomber’ Harris, which to this day gives rise to doubt in Britain, such that we feel a conflict between honouring the bomber crews who sustained the heaviest proportional loss of all our armed forces, and disturbance at the methods of their commander, who went for mass

From Russia with Colour – in 1912 !

From Russia with Colour – in 1912 !

Mar 23 2012 | comment(s)



This is interesting, on the BBC website:

Mathematics For Amphibians

Mathematics For Amphibians

Mar 19 2012 | comment(s)


To Diss or not to Diss?

To Diss or not to Diss?

Feb 15 2012 | comment(s)

There recently appeared on Scientific American Blogs an article by Jennifer Ouellette