The Anti Room

  There’s a problem with girls and maths. If this year is like previous years, then fewer female students will be taking higher level maths today than their male peers. What is happening here? Is this the problem we have heard about for years? – that well-known stereotype that says girls just aren’t good at [...]

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In Graham Greene’s novel Our Man in Havana an undercover agent, Beatrice, is sent from London to assist Wormold.  On her first night in Cuba she goes out to the most popular nightclub in town and douses a prominent policeman in soda water.  When our (anti)hero chastises her for making herself so conspicuous, she replies [...]

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Patrick Holford’s appearance on the Late Late on Friday was televised to the nation as a gospel proclamation: come see my magic works and repent, oh ye of little scientific understanding. I presumed that this would be the part of the show where RTE trot out someone to allow the audience to snigger at their [...]

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I talk about science at parties. Now, I know what you’re thinking – scientists don’t go to parties. Well, sometimes people invite us, and we try to behave ourselves as well as anyone else. The thing is, I often end up discussing evolution or genetics or any other aspect of science when I’m out in [...]

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Much of what modern science does, and why, baffles me, so I suppose it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn about studies which show that women’s tears have been shown to reduce male sexual arousal. It’s the scent of the tears apparently, rather than any visual cues that might affect his testosterone level – and [...]

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Quick science update. Two stories caught my eye – or maybe nose? – over the last couple of days. The first was that bacteria smell. And no I’m not talking about the pong of your bashed-up runners or the bin full of rotting vegetation in a heatwave. I mean they actually seem to have a [...]

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L’Oréal loves to talk up the science. From its skin-and-hair labs in Paris to Jennifer Aniston steadying her gaze into your living room and warning that “the science bit” is coming, they revel in the white-coatedness of it all. But it’s not just the men in those white coats, no. The cosmetics empire also wants to [...]

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So apparently NASA want you to name Node 3, a new part that is due to be added to the International Space Station. All sounds terribly easy, particularly as they give you several options and the chance to submit your own. You can choose from the rather dull ‘Earthrise’ (sounds like a space age alarm [...]

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