physics
First synthetic cell created at Venter Institute
Dr. J. Craig Venter and his team at the Venter Institute have synthesised the first cell to have its DNA artificially engineered by a computer, rather than generated from a “parent” cell or parent organism. It is a major step in gene manipulation which has been variously compared to other great feats such as the cloning... »
My Top 10 TED.com talks
1. Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight 2. Stephen Wolfram: Computing a theory of everything 3. Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds 4. Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions 5. Carolyn Porco flies us to Saturn 6. VS Ramachandran on your mind 7. Dan Dennett: Cute, sexy, sweet, funny 8. Adam Savage’s obsessions 9. Emily Levine’s theory of... »
Stephen Wolfram shifts it up a gear … then hits the turbo boost button!
It’s a modest goal really. Wolfram only wants to be able to model the universe with computational knowledge. Hold on to your socks – they’re about to be blown off . . . »
Posthumous apology to Alan Turing
The British Government today issued an apology to Alan Turing Click here for UK Gov statement BBC coverage here »
Origins Symposium > Lawrence Krauss
Lawrence Krauss is a physicist and cosmologist, but is best known as a popularizer of science. In this lecture, the finale of the Origins Symposium, he describes the progress made to date in Cosmology – including the amazing fact that we can now put a very accurate date on the age of the Universe! 13.7 billion... »
Is There a Higgs Particle?
A Talk With Brian Cox (Culled from edge.org) INTRODUCTION By Martin Rees As an astronomer I’m lucky to work in a subject where there is already public interest, and where it’s not too difficult to convey the key ideas and new discoveries in a non-technical and accessible way. It’s far harder to make particle physics accessible and interesting.... »
Pictures from Space, pictures of Space
Here’s a selection of astronomical images which have caught my eye for various reasons in the past few months. Click on a pic to get the full effect. We normally only see Saturn from the “sun-side”, but the Cassini probe recently took this sublime image from the far side of Saturn looking back towards the sun. And... »

