Category Archives: Science without worms

The economic benefits of heresy

Posted on August 7, 2018 by acb

This seems to have been written as a talk. Maybe it was a sermon I gave. I can’t remember; but it’s an idea I worked on for at least a decade, starting when I was trying to analyse everything from … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, God, Science without worms | 2 Comments

Plugging Marek

Posted on November 20, 2009 by acb

I had to call Marek Kohn the other day, because I was thinking about the Chief Rabbi’s eugenics, and this led me to reread A reason for everything. It really is good. The discussion of Bill Hamilton in particular is … Continue reading →

Posted in God, Literature, Science without worms | 1 Comment

Wiley Interscience

Posted on February 14, 2009 by acb

… may sodomise themselves with spiky reindeer antlers. I am paying their exorbitant charges for article reprints: $34.44 with VAT; and each one comes with the following boilerplate: IMPORTANT: You now have 24-hour access to this content. Access to this … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Journalism, Science without worms | 10 Comments

New and noted from PLOS

Posted on February 11, 2009 by acb

I came across this when looking for a report about empathy in mice: The mouse empathy story turns out to be of rather more lasting interest. I had been going to use it as an example of sloppy journalism: the … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Literature, Science without worms | Comments Off on New and noted from PLOS

Wonderful fanmail

Posted on October 2, 2008 by acb

I think this is the best response I could possibly have had to the Worm book: Hi Andrew We read of your book in the FT about Sweden being great Swedophiles – it was a great book capturing lots of … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Science without worms | 4 Comments

Funhouse mirror on the wall

Posted on September 29, 2008 by acb

via Razib, I just stumbled on this global obesity chart. No prizes for guessing that the fattest people on earth are Americans, at 30% obese, and it’s reasonable that Britain, at 23% shoud be in third place. But—except that it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Science without worms, Sweden | 6 Comments

Snippets

Posted on September 11, 2008 by acb

You can induce egglaying in frogs (Not safe for frog lovers) by injecting them with human hormones: I learned this indirectly from a letter this morning about my column on wikigenes, which turned out to appeal to an Oxford researcher … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Journalism, Science without worms | Comments Off on Snippets

She’s done the research

Posted on August 26, 2008 by acb

“The Sandoz acid was the Cadillac of drugs. The Owsley acid was a Mercedes with two flat tyres. It was a bumpy ride…” Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Garcia, from a podcast Q&A session with an audience I found on my disk, … Continue reading →

Posted in Blather, Science without worms | Comments Off on She’s done the research

FT review of Fishing in Utopia

Posted on July 14, 2008 by acb

Another gratifying review, from the Financial Times, where Hugh Carnegy, the executive editor, likes Fishing in Utopia,a lot, though he thinks, god knows why, that I am “a melancholy soul”. It is the window on Sweden that gives this book … Continue reading →

Posted in Journalism, Literature, Science without worms, Sweden, Travel notes | 3 Comments

A Pelican History

Posted on June 1, 2008 by acb

England in the Eighteenth Century is a lovely, succinct and succulent volume from the Pelican History of England, written in 1950, at a time of fierce self-improvement. To quote the contemporary review in the Listener: As a portent in the … Continue reading →

Posted in British politics, Literature, Science without worms, War | 1 Comment