Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Its Chemistry today. Past winners have included well-known names such as Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, and Linus Carl Pauling, so who has won and also why? The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2011 was awarded to Dan Shechtman “for the discovery of quasicrystals”. Quasicrystals are structural forms that are ordered but not periodic. They form patterns that … Read more
Yesterday the medicine prize was awarded to Dr Steinman, and then it soon emerged that he had passed away days before. Now, since the prize rules state that they cannot be awarded posthumously, there was a bit of a fuss about what would they do? I speculated that they would let it stand, and guess what, … Read more
You have all heard of it, it is the “Nobel Prize“, the top award bestowed by some Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. But why does it get so much attention, and why is it the top prize when there are lots of other awards out there? Lets explore this a bit … Read more
Donal Blaney, a senior partner with Griffin Law, asks a very good question on his blog. I repeat it in full here … Is anyone else deafened by the silence of Britain’s self-styled Islamic community leaders? I say this in the context of the impending death of Yusef Nadarkhani, an Iranian Christian who is an … Read more
Did you know that 30th September was Blasphemy Day? Well it was. So what was it all about? It is the day when individuals and groups are encouraged to openly express their criticism of, or even disdain for religion, and was founded in 2009 by the Center for Inquiry. Did the media pick it up? … Read more
Its IgNobel time … and as summed up by Nature … Then there are the Ig Nobel awards. These come with little cash, but much cachet, and reward those research projects that ‘first make people laugh, and then make them think’” — Nature And the 2011 winners are … PHYSIOLOGY PRIZE: Anna Wilkinson (of the … Read more