Category Archives: Science without worms

This is wonderful! Our learned commentator has finally got her snails on air. These are carnivorous beasties which live on coral reefs. Now, if you’re a snail, there is not much hope of running your prey down, or even following … Continue reading → Continue reading →

[This is sort of deadblogging, because it all happened last Thursday. But these are more or less the notes I made at the time. I have just been too busy to get them in order.] The OUP threw a lecture … Continue reading → Continue reading →

and the proof, via Carl Zimmer is in some research in the Journal of Neurobiology. They want $25 to read it, so I am relying on Zimmer’s summary here. There is a species of wasp, Ampulex compressa, which lays its … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A comment on the previous entry leads me to a blog devoted to the thought of Cardinal Schönborn. I’m more confused than ever. I think that the distinction he is trying to make is between full-on Dawkins style atheism or … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Or have I missed something subtle in this piece about Intelligent Design? He seems to be arguing that we have “philosophical”, i.e mediaeval scholastic, knowledge of certain truths about the world, which take precedence over scientific understandings. For example, we … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Magnatune” lets customers choose, within limits, how much they want to pay for music. But everyone knows that half goes to the artist. This seems to me good business and good psychology — surely people will pay more when they … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Thanks to Mrs Tilton, I have found a new friend: as Rupert said, she has wonderful eyes. What is also delightful is that the site works in English, German, or Slovene. More evidence of the splendour of Slovenia. Continue reading →

One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth. Perhaps the most frightening thing about this statistic is that the NYT felt obliged to end the sentence “… an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century” … Continue reading → Continue reading →

These videos depict one of the purest pieces of research I have ever seen: research so pure that it is, in fact, impossible to think of a use for this discovery — at the same time, I defy you not … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Here we come! I read stories like this, and for the first time in my life I wonder whether it was fair to have children. But perhaps that’s just wimpish. If billions of people are going to die anyway, why … Continue reading → Continue reading →