Keep it in the family

Here’s my latest Crucible column in Chemistry World. __________________________________________________________________

Last of the independents?

Here’s another take on the Lovelock fest at the Science Museum, written for the Prospect blog. _______________________

Small is... sort of cute

This little story went on the Guardian site on Friday. The technology isn’t new, but it was a very cute way to introduc

My unexpected internal monologue this week...

[The scene: the foyer of a university theatre. Conference delegates are standing around chatting.] Look, Michael Frayn

Criticality and phase transitions in biology

My piece just published in New Scientist on phase transitions in biology has had one of the most difficult gestations I

Theatre of the Invisible

I gave this talk yesterday at the meeting Performing Science: Dialogues Across Cultures at the University of Lincoln. I

Is music just about sex?

This piece (after editing) has just gone live on BBC Future. I don’t want to knock this PRSB paper, which reports intri

Whatever happened to beautiful instruments?

Have scientific instruments lost their soul? In preparing a schools talk for next week on beautiful experiments, I have

Hey hey mama

It gladdens my heart to see Jimmy Page with his double-neck guitar on the pages of a science magazine, even in Italian.