Philosophy of teaching

A very committed lecturer and friend of mine recently sat in on one of my lectures. She is taking a course essentially designed to make her an even better lecturer than she already is, and she needed to listen to someone else give a lecture, then ask some follow-up questions. I found the experience terrifying [...]

Mathematics: rigorous, tedious, fantastic, fairy-like

What strikes me about the following quote from Scientific American in 1908 is the opinionated, chatty, subjective, silly, and nearly-trivial tone which so often is blamed on the recent influence of blogging. There ain’t nothing new under the sun.

Mathematics is the most exact and the most thoroughly grounded of the sciences. And yet, in the [...]

Creativity: a scientific viewpoint

Last night I was lucky enough to be able to attend a wonderful two hour lecture and chat session with Margaret Boden OBE, Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex in my old home town of Brighton. She is here visiting the University of Canterbury as a Distinguished Erskine Fellow, and gave [...]

Me in six words (a meme)

The rules of the game can be read over here. The idea is to write a six word autobiography, or memoir, then “tag” five other bloggers to do the same. I was tagged by the tea-rrific Pepsoid at The Art of Tea.
The idea is deliciously ridiculous. How can one possibly summarise even a day of [...]

Illegality of military robots and questions of identity

Military robots - milbots, anyone? - play an increasing role in modern warfare. Robotic bomb disposal units have been around for some time, as have computer-assisted aircraft controls, but now the aim is to have robots autonomously plan and make kills. One example is the class of robots known as Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles, or [...]

Butterflies remember being caterpillars

For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by the process by which a caterpillar dissolves itself into a butterfly. It seemed astonishing that a life would destroy itself to birth a totally different creature with none of the characteristics or memories of its progenitor. But, how could memory possibly survive the mushification [...]

The meaning of scientific literacy

The promotion of scientific and mathematical literacy is always to be applauded. Looking at the world honestly, and drawing conclusions based on the evidence, are two important skills for making a human whole. Alone, they lead to a lifeless vision of terrifying sterility, but combined with compassion, creativity, imagination, and love, they have the power [...]

Radical shifts in perspective

A few minutes ago I posted about a wonderful Scientific American slideshow in which the brilliant science plays second fiddle to the new and jaw-dropping perspective on humankind it produces. Then there is another article also over at SciAm, asking “Do Microbes Make Snow?” It turns out that the answer could be yes, and they [...]

The long view of our night view

Scientific American have surpassed themselves again with a beautiful slideshow taking the long view of how the night sky seen from Earth has changed in the past and will change in the future. The images themselves are striking as works of art, but what really hits home is the brevity of recorded human history in [...]