“If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,” said Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado this week. “In my view, the July 2012 storm was in all respects at least as strong as the 1859 Carrington event,” … Continue reading
As I mentioned back in March, the terrible disease Chikungunya is heading towards the USA, due to the first cases ever appearing in the Caribbean late last year. Now that region is really suffering: In the last six months, the … Continue reading
I have a lot of respect for the good that scientists achieve, but there is something generally missing from their skill sets: risk mitigation. This seeming blindness to the true risks of their endeavours leaves the general population at risk, … Continue reading
Bishop of Lincoln, and scientist, Robert Grosseteste wrote about the Big Bang way back in 1225: Grosseteste had been studying the recently rediscovered works of Aristotle, which explained the motion of the stars by embedding Earth in a series of … Continue reading
Brewer’s yeast has changed many times as agriculture spread & different human cultures emerged. New forms, as distinctive as species, emerged in association with beer & wine production in different regions. Some of these yeasts changed further to give a wide variety of bread … Continue reading
If you haven’t heard of the Carrington Event, the short explanation is this – a solar storm in 1859 knocked out the telegraph system, and if it happened today you could expect electric grids to fail and take years to … Continue reading
I guess it is human nature – when you have so much money that it can help many future generations of your progeny, you do your best to make sure it gets to them. Smarter still is to use some … Continue reading
Obviously this is a generalisation – the west of the USA is close to half a continent. There will be some great survival spots here and there. But generally speaking, the West is dry, and the East is not: … Continue reading
The Long Now Foundation, established in 1996, is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in San Francisco that seeks to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. It aims to provide a counterpoint to what it views as today’s “faster/cheaper” mindset and to promote … Continue reading
Researchers around the UK are working with colleagues from the USA, Italy and the Netherlands on Project Persephone, investigating new biotechnologies that could one day help to create a self-sustaining spacecraft to carry people beyond our solar system. The craft … Continue reading