Let's not turn scientists into rock stars (the reverse is OK if they're called Brian)

Well, I thought I should put up here for posterity my comment published in the Guardian online about the Breakthrough P

The tinkling of the aristocracy

Fashions change. I just learnt from Louise Levathes’ book When China Ruled the Seas that upper-class men in fifteenth-c

What your sewage tells about you

Here’s my latest piece for BBC Future, pre-editing. I was going to illustrate it with that scene from Trainspotting, bu

Curiosity: the view from the Vatican

I don’t think of myself as a pope-basher. But there are times when one can’t help being flabbergasted at what the Vatic

Still on the trail of cursive's benefits

My interest in the merits (or not) of cursive writing prompted me to follow up Ed Yong’s recent tweet about an article

Programmable matter kicks off

Here's how my recent article for IEEE Spectrum started off, with some more references, info and links. ________________

Why it's great to be deceived

Here's my third column for the Italian science magazine Sapere on music cognition. It mentions one of my favourite spin