While climate change resulting from human activities might seem a new-fangled concept, there have been on-point predictions dating back many years. For instance: Eunice Newton Foote’s pioneering experiments from the mid-1800s Though insufficiently recognised, it seems Eunice Newton Foote was a pioneering scientist, whose experiments led her to…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
[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…
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…
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.
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.
