Science Lite

Paying homage to inspiration

The great thing about scientists – well, one of the many great things about scientists – is that, at heart, they are big kids. Not, you understand, that they run around screaming inconsolably, or that they lack full control of their bodily fluids – but rather they have always managed to maintain…

A sweet mission

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Rarely would we be so bold as to start this column with a quote from one of the most harrowing poems ever penned. Yet upon receiving our Editor’s brief this month, we found a certain line tumbling from our mouths.

Kind of blue…

Kind of blue...

We come to you this month from on high, floating in a miasmic cloud of our own delight. Something rare has happened. Something very rare indeed.

A wrinkly little problem…

A wrinkly little problem

“What,” exclaims our increasingly despairing editor “…happened here?” Despite the Science Lite desk’s attempts to cover the rapidly expanding puddle of water at our feet, the sodden patch darkens and gives us up.

Extra mature cheese?

Extra mature cheese?

As ingenuity goes – we humans are unbearably smug. As a species, the notion that we can ‘out-invent’ any other inhabitants of the rock famous, among other things, for being third from the Sun seems utterly inherent. A given.

The maddest of the mad scientists…

A scientific revolution, several centuries of controversy, two exhumations, a tame – albeit drunk – elk, a passion for scientific truth so strong that he was prepared to sacrifice his nose and a partridge in a pear tree. (Obviously that last one is untrue – even though it is the least peculiar – but it is nearly Christmas, and so we thought a little festive cheer wouldn’t go amiss.)

Given our role here on Science Lite – which largely consists of generating both tea and whimsy – it isn’t often we feel emboldened enough to suggest an entire paradigm shift in the way science is carried out. Yet, buoyed by our fifth cup of the day (tea, not whimsy) we have been moved to

Science Lite: Jurassic fantasies will never be a reality

Dinosaur

Fans of this page may remember that two issues ago, the ScienceLite desk got into trouble for feigning intelligence and evolutionary insight using a quote from Jurassic Park. Sadly our editor was sharp enough to realise the quote’s origin and call us out for it, ensuing much embarrassment.

Laughing as we learn

Salmon – Tasty and a hotbed of neurological activity

The internet.  Internal combustion.  Crisps. Just three things that we on the Science Lite desk are constantly disappointed we didn’t invent. Not being computer scientists, engineers or food production experts we can, however, forgive ourselves to some extent.

A seed is sown, a lesson is learnt

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Life is all about learning lessons. And here on the Science Lite desk we have just learnt a very valuable one.

To shave, or not to shave

Swimmers shave their body hair to shave valuable second off their time, do cyclists do the same

“Since this is a bumper year for sport, I want you lazy lot to do something on the science and myths in sports” came the terrifying words from the Editor. Not the Science Lite team’s favourite topic – unless it involves a few alcoholic beverages down the pub while watching the latest match, but…

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