A new Channel 4 show entitled The Theory Of Everything is about the search for a unified theory of physics. Current thinking focusses on 10-, 11- or 26-dimensional vibrating strands (superstrings) or sheets (m-branes) of energy. The introduction to t[…]

Our generation’s love of all things retro knows no bounds: Medical therapy employing the use of live maggots is gaining popularity again![…]

SPACE: FLYING VISITS is a little ten-minute filler programme on BBC2 (Tue, 9.50pm) which allows them to play around with presentation and formats, CGI, cartoons, talking heads at thumbnail size next to a multicoloured diagram, in ways they never do w[…]

See if you can read this recent highlight from Nature Science Update — it’s a surefire icebreaker for your next awkward social interaction. It details the efforts of microbiologists at San Diego State University to gather genetic informat[…]

Sociobiologist Dr. Gene Selfish answers your relationship questions. What’s ‘bugging’ you?
Hey Gene –
What I got goin’ on with my SO is perfect – almost. I’m a pretty tolerant guy, but her kid is driving me n[…]

SCIENCE IS YOUR FRIEND #1: A musician I knew a bit – I’d written a little story on him – invited me to his house, somewhere in Essex on the banks of the Thames. He was throwing a barbecue for family and friends, and it was a nice wa[…]

Barefoot Cheek in the Barefoot Doctor’s face
This was mentioned in Private Eye and has just been linked in NTK too. It’s an open forum of questions for the Observer’s whacky columnist. Quote: “i poetically call myself a barefo[…]

Look Around You‘s Periodic Table [ed: updated link]
Only feeling a bit miffed, cos I did something like this some years ago myself. When you find yourself bored editing a science textbook, have access to Adobe Illustrator and an EPS of the peri[…]

Necessity is apparently the mother of invention. This might make films and science fiction the father. This struck me most evidently the other day when watching the 1913 movie Traffic In Souls. Despite the IMDB calling it primitive, there are plenty […]

SEEN ON THE INTERWEB:
“The thing about seagulls exploding being unable to vent CO2 is not an urban myth, because I’ve seen it. If you give them bread with lots of bicarb on, they fly away, go wobbly, then wetly burst.”
Playground La[…]