Climate change has been prominent in worldwide news this summer (2023), notably as we have just lived through the hottest week for perhaps 100,000 years. Given a series of global warming events, we should have alarm bells ringing, sirens sounding, along with efforts to change our ways; yet…
Read MoreIgnoring Science Makes Global Climate Disaster as Inevitable as Titanic Submarine Implosion
So here we are with our modern-day wonder, the internet – where even with a smartphone, you can search for and read the latest scientific research on a host of topics, including diseases like Covid. And what do we have? A whole lot of codswallop with little or…
Read MoreHave you been bullied into health? Fear, quackery and Covid
Just had one of those silly Twitter “conversations” with someone who had position so fixed, impossible to change with facts. Yeah, reminds me of adage “Don’t mud wrestle with a pig. The pig enjoys it, and you just get dirty.” But, kind of interesting to see how someone…
Read MoreNever mind the antimask-o-sphere. Science shows face masks help reduce Covid spread
I’ve read accounts of the Spanish Flu, which was the last major pandemic, mainly in 1918 [so over and done with relatively quickly]. At times, could seem responses were odd: maybe trying to act as if there was no disease around; also some familiar scenes like wearing masks,…
Read MoreA Covid scrapbook: snapshots from the crazy pandemic
Highly pathogenic bird flu variants evolve from regular, low pathogenic, bird flus, within intensive poultry farming.
Read MoreHighly pathogenic bird flu variants mostly evolve in intensive poultry farming
We’ve learned a lot about Covid, even developing vaccines. Yet Covid remains an issue, no matter how much we might wish it gone.
Read MoreKeep Your Underpants Duck Taped and Air Clean as Covid Wild Ride Continues
Since early in the pandemic, I’ve been seeing scientists arguing Covid is airborne, even with hashtag #covidisairborne – including to counter notions it is spread by droplets [short range], which seem to be based on very old notions. Important if to combat covid; as it means that should…
Read MoreCovid is airborne so ventilation and air filtration are important
Evidence is snowballing that Long Covid is also a serious issue, even affecting people in whom the disease initially appeared mild.
Read MoreLong Covid – info and links indicating major impact
Maybe humans tweaked bat coronaviruses in gain of function experiments, inadvertently creating Covid thro lab leak.
Read MorePerhaps Covid arose through lab leak of tweaked bat Coronavirus
Covid is airborne, which means that much as unprotected sex is a risk for HIV, unprotected breathing might result in Covid.
Read MoreThe Covid Conundrum: Endless Lockdowns, Let It Rip … or What?
Some of the science showing Covid including Omicron is a huge issue; and one that looks set to be with us a long time.
Read MoreScience shows Covid including Omicron is Really Not the Flu
The disinfo downplaying Covid is often from rightwing, mainly money-minded folks who perhaps don't care too much about actual people.
Read More“Alarmist” Covid predictions outperform Covid deniers’ soothsaying
Science can provide some insights into what may happen with Covid, along with ways to limit its impacts.
Read MoreCovid virulence, vaccines and variants
We’re in this for the long haul, with the virus like a relentless, invisible foe, ready to exploit errors, slip through the best defences
Read MoreWe’re in the Covid Era for the Long Haul
rom quick pricking by unseen marine creature, to intense fever, and hospital stay for an infection deep within the skin.
Read MoreMy Strange n Surprising Summer Staycation with Cellulitis
[Written for South China Morning Post on 6 January 2021] In January last year, as reports were emerging of the new coronavirus being detected outside mainland China – including in Hong Kong, I wrote a column that quietly suggested, “It can be readily transmitted by mobile people, and indeed…
Read MoreCovid virulence, vaccines and variants
Guan Yi, director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases at Hong Kong University, has extensive experience of viruses; yet after a brief visit to Wuhan in January, remarked “I’ve never felt scared. This time I’m scared.” [Written for South China Morning Post, published on 29…
Read MoreThe Viral Time Bomb – Pandemic of Our Time
As news of Wuhan coronavirus emerges, evolutionary biology suggests potential for a pandemic, not killing high percentage of people.
Read MoreFrom China With Fear: the Wuhan Coronavirus Won’t Kill Us All
Environmentalism is under assault; yet this planet is the only home we have; providing our food, air, water... It's our life support system.
Read MoreFightback Needed as Science and Life Support System Under Attack
Hong Kong’s water supply system has been vital to its development as a “world city”.
Read MoreSecret World of Hong Kong Water Supply
Prof Euan Nisbet leads a science team to Hong Kong in quest to help find why levels of potent greenhouse gas methane are rising in the atmosphere
Read MoreHong Kong Belching Buffaloes n Bubbling Paddies and the Mystery Methane Rise
Several projects are underway in the quest to discover ways to harness fusion power, which is akin to a holy grail of nuclear physics.
Read MoreFusion Power and Human Failings
Fossils found in Liaoning, China, offer a wealth of insight into the origins of birds, albeit without simplistic missing links.
Read MoreGoodbye dinosaurs, Hello birds
Off-the shelf headsets and DIY implants can help get you started.
Read MoreSo You Want to be a Cyborg?
Frederick Sanger made pivotal contributions to studying the chemistry of life, primarily by finding how molecules are assembled.
Read MoreA Man for All Sequences Frederick Sanger
Darwinism has been questioned and tested wherever possible. becoming a pillar of modern science, but subject to non-scientific attacks.
Read MoreLeaps of Logic and Faith versus Evolution Science
Though “immune system” is a familiar term, there is still much to be learned about how our bodies defend against diseases.
Read MoreEbola’s inner rampage and praise for dirt plus optimum sex
Sleep science did not really begin till 1953, the same year the structure of DNA was discovered.
Read MoreSleep Science plus insomniac fruit flies, angry women and brain-washing
Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura received a Nobel Prize for seminal roles in the invention of blue light-emitting diodes.
Read MoreBlue light at last wins Nobel for LED titans
While boffins work on the Robobrain, a robot sentry and robot sex slaves, Boris struggles with knives and forks.
Read MoreRobots Rising as Boris struggles to identify everyday objects
Epigenetics concerns ways the DNA code is actually expressed and implemented, and is distinctly weird.
Read MoreMonster Plants and the Fears of Our Fathers
Thorium just might prove key to a new generation of nuclear reactors - IF major challenges can be overcome.
Read MoreThorium can Power the Planet …. Maybe
Overpopulation woes include there being too many rich people; it is more than simply a numbers game.
Read MoreTick Tock Goes the Population Bomb
Though best known as co-discover of evolution, Wallace was an astonishing man: an explorer, self-taught naturalist, discoverer of new species, prolific – and outstanding – writer, opponent of eugenics, and believer in both women’s rights and spiritualism.
Read MoreGenius of the Jungles: Alfred Russel Wallace
Even with science reports, it’s worth remembering the adage: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Read MoreHow to Spot a Scientific Dud
We’re omnivores, and whilst we can thrive on a variety of diets, it's very tough or even impossible to recommend an ideal human diet.
Read MoreScientific Dieting Cooks Up a Moveable Feast
For the most part, there might be little harm in idiotic anti-science. Yet there can also be far-reaching consequences.
Read MoreAnti-science idiocy threatens catastrophic consequences
Recent discoveries are helping show that our solar system is a weird place; several of these involve moons, but planets yield surprises too.
Read MoreSolar System Weirdness inc Diamond Rain and Ice Volcanoes
In this season to be jolly, even normally serious scientists may loosen up a little, perhaps publishing frivolous research, and looking on the brighter side of life.
Read MoreLaughter n more science in the Xmas season
The age of the wonder drug seems to be drawing to a close, bringing to an end modern medicine as we know it.
Read MoreRise of the Superbugs
Did life start in a primordial soup on earth, or with chemicals carried from Mars?
Read MorePrimordial soup and the life from Mars theory
Sshort-term memory may retain around seven items for half a minute, while long-term memories form in a process that may be heightened by emotions.
Read MoreOf Mice and Men and Memory, Plus the Inception Deception
Hofstadter’s butterfly, a remarkable spectrum of electron energy levels, was first described in 1976 by Douglas Hofstadter
Read MoreThe butterfly and the remarkable Professor Hofstadter
From volcanoes on Java, to a supervolcano in Hong Kong, and dormant supervolcanoes today.
Read MoreVolcanoes: Where the Earth Screams
Picture an atom, and you may imagine spherical electrons orbiting a nucleus packed with particles: this is the Bohr atom, a simplistic model.
Read MoreHappy 100th Birthday to the Bohr Atom!
The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics was for measuring and manipulating quantum systems; while the Chemistry prize was for work on receptors.
Read MoreThe Cat in the Box and a Real Eureka Moment
Lithium batteries have proven especially attractive as they produce high power relatively to their size.
Read MoreDreamliner Troubles yet Lithium Batteries Flying High
3D printing is developing rapidly, with applications including rapidly making complex prototypes, and even creating aeroplane parts.
Read MoreWonderful World of 3D Printing