Category: Science

Uncle Tungsten

This sad news story reminded me I had recently read Oliver Sacks childhood memoir

Uncle Tungsten – Memories of a Chemical Boyhood

Reminded me of myself, even the Nitrogen Iodide trick, though I never went so far as to get a fume-cupboard installed in the home.

This book underlies everything else Dr Sacks has written, and is worthy to stand with the great scientific memoirs, for its passion, its insight, its sense of history and its felicity. – Paul Theroux.

A must-read for anyone who’d admit to having learned the Periodic Table by heart đŸ˜‰

Lost Faith in Science

If you missed Sir Paul Nurse on BBC Horizon:
Interesting unspoken stumbling block is that boundary between science itself and the political (ie aim-oriented) public communication “about” science. ie yes, clearly, science / scientists need (always needed) to concern themselves with public communication, but is that necessarily science or scientific ?
Meta is the word.