yppahpeek

There's a lot out there. What do we not know we don't know? Why should we bother with science that has no practical application? Since science is funded by a public which is becoming more engaged, why should they fund certain research projects? The debate over blue-skies research is a popular dinner table discussion for scientists and non-scientists alike. I know scientists who think blue-skies research is superfluous and “offers the researchers money to pursue their hobby”, but equally I know non-scientists who see blue-skies, or curiosity-led research as absolutely essential to our progress as a species. NASA is usually mentioned in any half-decent discussion about the importance of blue-skies research because, actually, what was the point of flying to a lump of rock sitting a few hundred-thousand kilometres away from our (mostly comfortable) planet? “Well,” say Defenders of the Blue Sky. “Teflon and Velcro are NASA spinoffs, invented during The Space Race”. Not s...

(Can't be bothered reading this? Visit  http://youtu.be/FSh2khUxlmk  to hear me read it instead) The Manchester Art Gallery is a fantastic (almost) hidden gem and can be found just down the road from Piccadilly Gardens. Heading down Mosley Street, with the trams trundling next to you, you'll meet a collumned Victorian building. The foyer is high ceilinged, bright and spacious. A nice start. While there are more permanent exhibitions (from the 17th century and onwards), the few guest exhibitions I've seen have been fantastic. The first, about six months ago, was the Roger Ballen exhibition. I had never even heard  of Roger Ballen but apparently he's influential enough to direct a video for the (slightly strange) group Die Antwoordt . The exhibition was amazing, nothing can prepare you for how scary this photo is  his photos are* when it's  they are printed life-size - the characters stare so intently that I felt as if I was one-half of a cat fight; scar...

Yet another banker-bashing news story has hit the press. On Thursday (28 June 2012), Barclays bank was fined for fixing an interest rate linked to the price of loans on mortgages. There has been a loud voice from the public demanding Bob Diamond to resign as Chief Executive . Other stories have reported that Bob will not resign over the actions of a "small number" of Barclays employees who were dishonest to make a fast buck for themselves. Searching Twitter for #Barclays and #BobDiamond shows a lot of anger and hate directed towards the leaders of the banks. The people want a public execution: they want a Diamond skull! After the execution Is this "reach for the torches and pitchforks" reaction helpful? The "small number" of traders in Barclays would have known what they were doing was (if not illegal) " morally questionable ", and yet they still did it. People are inherently dishonest and do not always weigh up the reward of an action v...

Welcome back travellers! I hope you found the first installment as mind blowing as I did. (I'm not trying to big-up my ego there, I'm not fussed if you enjoyed the way I write, it's the content that completely blows me away!) Just to recap, I am trying to show why it is highly unlikely that any two randomly shuffled decks of 52 cards have ever been the same, even assuming humans could play with cards since the Big Bang! Wow! What a statement! In the last post , I showed how it's possible to count the number of ways of arranging n objects (this is called the number of ' permutations ' of n objects). Without going into too much detail, it works out that for n objects, there are n! permutations (where n! = n x (n-1) x (n-2) x (n-3) x ... x 3 x 2 x 1 ). This means that for a deck of 52 cards, there are 52! , or 8.07 x 10 67 permutations. This is a massive number, and is about equal to a tenth the number of atoms in the whole Milky Way! (This was my own ...

Ever get that feeling, half-an-hour later, when you think "I wish I'd said this "? It takes me a bit longer (about two days). I think what I have learned is that I shouldn't get drunk and start talking about maths. We were having a chilled-out night, having a few drinks and playing some board games. A pack of cards came out. And I drop the bomb: Did you know? "It is very unlikely that any two randomly shuffled decks [of 52 cards] will ever have had the same order in the history of the world – even if the world's population had started playing cards at the Big Bang" – Alex Bellos. Alex's Adventures in Numberland. pg339. I don't think the significance of this properly hit. Or maybe it did and I just couldn't answer the questions. "No, really? No way!" "Since the beginning of the universe?". I mumbled something about a number being followed by 67 zeroes, but I don't think the true awesomeness of this really hit. To...

So there's a really cool web diagram on the BBC website today. It is an interactive tool that shows the different levels of debt owed by countries, to other countries. It is sheer comedy to go round the circle, looking at the levels of debt owed by Greece; Spain; France; Germany; then the UK; and finally the USA. A little bit of explanation is given. But I would love somebody to make this make sense to me!

As if weekend television couldn't get any worse, ' I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here ' has started up again. What can we learn from watching a group of celebrities, or otherwise, performing 'terrifying' tasks in an isolated environment? The 'contestants' will be pushed to their extremes, both by the loneliness and conversely by the fact that they will never by able to escape the company of the others. The tasks will demand concentration, commitment and the facing of fears. Tensions will inevitably run high and conflict will occur. This makes for some excellent TV, or so I am told. The last decade of 'reality TV' probably hasn't told us much about being human, but perhaps it has inspired scientists to start questioning how we will ever travel beyond our own ' Pale Blue Dot '. If we were to send a manned space mission to Mars, the minimum distance that would need to be covered is around 50 million kilometres. It takes light 4 minut...