Science: Dull, boring and irrelevant?I considered giving a health warning with this post. Today, I abandon my usual calm demeanour and embark upon a part-rant, part impassioned call to action. As I climb onto my soapbox, be advised, things might get ugly (well, relatively – I am British after all).
Over the past 20 or so years, millions of dollars (pounds, Yen and Euros) have been invested by governments, charities and professional bodies in an attempt to break down misunderstandings about science within the wider public. Much of it has been done in vain and the successes have been small. When you look at actual data, it makes for some quite shocking reading; the general ‘educated’ public remain frighteningly misinformed about the fundamentals of science…
So is anyone to blame and what the Higgs can we do about it?Read more
What would you do with US$10,000? (That's about £6,000) ... Build your own satellite perhaps?What could you do with $10,000?
Take a trip around the world? Refit the kitchen or replace the ageing car? Perhaps you would invest it in stocks and shares?
But what would you say to building and launching your very own satellite?Forget paying to have a star named after you: Technology is now smaller and cheaper than ever before, so building your very own ‘Sputnik’ is a very real possibility. Utilising the kind of gizmos normally found in a mobile phone, amateurs can buy ‘DIY satellite kits’ and build their very planetary orbiter. These ‘nano-satellites’ are no bigger than a bottle of coke and weigh less than a bag of potatoes – and nice space agencies will let you ‘hitch a ride’ on the next rocket launch for next to nothing!
Amateurs and professionals alike are flocking to get a piece of the action: Ever fancy starting your own satellite TV station? What about monitoring weather patterns or having your personal Hubble Space Telescope?
Read on to find out the steps to making your very own ‘CubeSat’… Read more
Have you ever felt like you could be an undiscovered genius? Well scientists have now come up with ingenious ways of you using your brain to push back the boundaries of science... by playing video games! So if you'd like the chance to see if you're the next Einstein (without the hair) just put down that Sudoku, stop playing Angry Birds and take a look at these computer games! You never know, by playing them you just might help discover the cure for cancer...