David MacKay to become DECC’s Chief Scientific Advisor

The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change might just be moving in the right direction, and Prof. David MacKay’s rise to world domination continues apace.

Global warming: blast from the past

It’s the summer of  ’53. Elvis makes his first recording, Watson and Crick publish the structure of DNA … and Time magazine and Popular Mechanics report the very latest research findings:  it turns out that man-made carbon dioxide emissions are causing the Earth to heat up.

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Simon Singh battles England’s amboguous libel laws

Justice Eady decides what “bogus” and “happily” mean in the BCA v Singh libel case, Simon Singh applies to appeal, the BCA faces a public relations catastrophe.

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David MacKay, energy star: “How many light bulbs?”

Prof. David MacKay’s book, “Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air”, has been published, and it’s an instant success. Now there’s a video, a radio interview, a Guardian editorial singing his praises … and a bafflingly inscrutable criticism from the Sustainable Development Commission.

“That’s not my department”, says Wernher von Braun

Tom Lehrer sings about the downside of Wernher von Braun’s rather complex legacy.

Richard Feynman on the BBC in 1981

In 1981, the BBC’s flagship science series “Horizon” devoted a programme to an extended interview with Richard Feynman.

Clyde Tombaugh goes to Pluto

Here’s a trick question: Who’s the fastest human being ever?

Claude Shannon really ought to be more famous

He’s best known for information theory, but that’s just the start of it.