I seem to have become CT’s resident moderate techno-optimist. So let me push back a little: here are five things that we’re not going to see between now and 2050. 1) Nobody is going to Mars. Let me refine that a little: nobody is going to Mars and coming back alive. A one-way suicide mission […]
Science
I do these occasional posts about science papers. Some are just for fun. But sometimes — honest! — there’s an underlying connection to the greater Crooked Timber project. This post is one of that sort, because it’s about the limits of understanding. Unsurprisingly, it involves biology. So we all learned back in high school that […]
Australia will be getting its very own space agency with plans to mount a mission to put astronauts on the surface of Dubbo within two decades. “Due to the high cost of petrol and the dodgy radiator we will have... Read More ›
Australia is set to meet their target of hitting net zero much earlier than 2050 after scientists managed to figure out how to channel the anger generated from low-rating cable channel, Sky News Australia, to power the grid. ”It’s early... Read More ›
Exclusive: Campaigners raise alarm as regulations allowing lab-altered crops in supermarkets from next year contain no limit on genetic modifications and 'weak' safeguards
The Opposition’s shadow minister for home affairs, Barnaby Joyce, has told colleagues that he will defy the Coalition and seek to introduce a private member’s bill that will repeal the net zero bonk ban. ”Australians have had a gutful of... Read More ›
Unemployed, I spent a week in April digging a small pond in our back yard. At the time, it was a distraction. Now it is… actually, a different sort of distraction. Because although it’s not a very big pond — about 3 meters by 2, maximum depth about 70 cm — it has very quickly […]
So a few days ago I posted about newts, and I mentioned that there was an American newt that was ridiculously toxic. But then (I said) there wasn’t space or time to go into why. And of course I was immediately bombarded by many* comments and e-mails asking why. *three Well, fine. The world’s most toxic […]
And then the light of an older heaven was in my eyesand when my vision cleared, I saw Titans. — Alan Moore Today’s Occasional Paper comes to us from the James Webb Space Telescope. So let’s start with some basics: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. So when a telescope looks out […]
The blue-ringed octopus! An elegant little creature, native to the southwest Pacific, particularly the waters around Australia. Pretty to look at… but mostly famous for being very, very venomous. The blue-ring’s bite is deadly. A single sharp nip can kill an adult human in minutes. But why? The blue-ring is a modest little creature that […]