Archived Articles
Below is a list of some of the articles I've written.
2010
February
- Why does music move us?
- Paul Nurse: A big bang for British medical research
- Tories: prepare for major science cuts
January
- The fight against disease gets personal
- Time for David Cameron to woo scientists
- Liberal Democrats make firm pledges on science
- Science needs more blue sky thinking
2009
December
- Nerdstock: Christmas for rationalists
- Set the S word agenda
- The fallout of the £600 million cuts
- Campaign to reform English libel law launched
- Royal Society to weigh into UK election debate
- Nuclear fusion is the future
November
- Talented teachers are the key to improving our science education
- UK science policy thrashed out gently
- Surfer dude's theory of everything: the magic of Garrett Lisi
October
- The day Tony Blair (nearly) told Mandelson to jump off the Millennium Dome
- ITER: The way to a benign and limitless energy source
September
August
July
- Apollo anniversary video package
- Apollo special: Brian Eno's moon music
- Does lab sperm mean an end to fathers? Not in my lifetime
- Brian Eno explains Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
June
- Tom Hanks and Ron Howard: Space geeks
- Moon rocks and how to spot them
- Competition: Win a piece of moon rock
- Sex talk wins 'science idol' competition
- The Link by Colin Tudge and Josh Young: review
April
- With a teacher's inspiration, the glory of science can shine through
- Searching for the Pop Idol of the science world
March
- The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning by James Lovelock, review
- An adventure in molecular gastronomy
February
January
2008
December
November
- Transplant of windpipe grown from stem cells heralds new era in medicine
- The legacy of Michael Crichton
October
September
- Secret of froghoppers' leap 100 times its body length found
- Moon base plans for 'peak of eternal light'
- Embryo-free stem cell method means treatments are nearer
- Sick pigs helping to find cure for cystic fibrosis
- Scientists glimpse 'dark flow' lurking beyond the edge of the universe
- DNA surgery offers hope
- Mysterious dark matter may lurk by Earth
- Lonesome George the Galapagos tortoise may not be the last of his kind
- Why leaves fall off trees is discovered
- Neanderthals ate seafood and had sophisticated palates
- Eye gene therapy brings cure for blindness nearer
- Nanoparticle method may be able to inject drugs deep into the brain
- Large Hadron Collider: could it defrost a pizza?
- Oldest ice in North America 'more resistant to climate change than thought'
- Laws of nature: How to spot a conservative
- Special nerve cells could be key to treating spinal injuries
- Missing link that unites black holes discovered
- Way to protect babies from Listeria found
- Large Hadron Collider: Public chooses 'Halo' as its new name
- Soup of chemicals on primordial Earth was naturally evolving toward life
- Macho men get more of a buzz from their team winning
- Crows may be smarter than apes
- Spider venom could be used in impotence treatment
- Large Hadron Collider: First subatmotic particle collision to happen next week
- 'Ant from Mars' found in Amazon rainforest
- Why Christmas is more exciting for children than adults
- Large Hadron Collider: Scientists plan upgrade to 'Super LHC'
- Astronomers capture image of alien planet orbiting a 'Sun'
- Stephen Hawking to unveil strange new way to tell the time
- Porton Down disease laboratory to be rebuilt
- Hackers infiltrate Large Hadron Collider systems and mock IT security
- Gamma-ray burst that was heading for Earth detected
- LHC: Scientists jockey for position in race to find the Higgs particle
- Females prefer 'a low a deep groan'
- Reason leaves turn red in autumn found
- Why we evolved to be superstitious
- Large Hadron Collider - will it cause the end of the world?
- Large Hadron Collider facts
- Men's brains are 'better connected'
- GM licorice could help stop desertification
- Spore: The science of Spore
- Spore: The science of Spore
- Spore: The science of Spore
- Toddler maths skills indicates future ability
- 'The Grid' will see 80,000 computer network processing data from LHC
- Scientists get death threats over Large Hadron Collider
- An Inconvenient Truth exaggerated sea level rise
- Meaningless genetic code helped form human hands
- 'Comedy brain cell' that responds to humour found
- New drug to treat dogs with heart disease
- Robot spiders catch bumblebees in study that shows bees feel fear
- Fears of new kinds of CJD
- Further research debunking MMR autism link published
- New hope in fight against deadly cancers
- Atomic boffins spot fake wines
- First glimpse of our local black hole
- Chinese devise anti-invisibility cloak
- Chinese devise anti-invisibility cloak
- Major hurricanes that cause devastation are getting stronger
- Children use opposite sex parent as template for a partner
- Neolithic phallus points to brooding macho men
- Way to reveal the genesis of all life devised
- Depressed mothers have babies that sleep badly
- Blood test could provide lung cancer early warning
- Sports bore brain secret revealed
- 'Divorce gene' linked to relationship troubles
- Long-life gene that triples chance of living to 100 found
- Elderly are quicker-witted than young people
August
- Amazon rainforest was giant garden city
- Reason why breast cancer survivors relapse discovered
- Exploding bacteria method could fight superbugs
- How to make 'perfect lenses' unveiled
- Preschool maths education 'beneficial to a surprising level'
- Scientists work out best way to swat a fly
- Top five tips for killing flies
- Cure for deafness now within reach
- Treatment could mean diabetics produce their own insulin
- Long-distance quantum communication a step nearer
- Secrets of immortality could be tantalisingly close
- Children have sense of fairness by age of seven
- Why you should trust your instincts
- Women and property are the cause of male aggression
- Babies can recognise emotion in faces
- Rap about world's largest science experiment becomes YouTube hit
- Rap about world's largest science experiment becomes YouTube hit
- Black holes can 'act as midwives to aid star birth'
- Psychologists probe the minds of floating voters
- Elephants can count - and are good at simple maths
- Images of 'filaments' reaching from home galaxy to Perseus Cluster
- Fat into muscle - how to turn a beer gut into a six-pack
- Dogs have a sense of right and wrong
- Stem cell technology may make blood donations thing of the past
- West prefers eyes and mouth, East likes the nose
- A rounder face 'means men are more aggressive'
- Stem cell marker gives new clue to bowel cancer
- Birds not following changing climate fast enough
- Cancer patients have pioneering 'cutting by colour' surgery
- Magpies join elite club of animals that recognise themselves in the mirror
- Why short women with long legs are the most attractive
- Shipping pollution 'may cause 60,000 deaths a year'
- We are natural born mathematicians
- Star Trek warp drive is a possibility, say scientists
- A brief history of warp drives
- Ocean dead zones free of oxygen double every decade
- Web security function being used to digitise old books
- Bowel cancer genetic link found
- Einstein's spooky action acts at 10,000 times the speed of light
- Immune paradox could help treat Aids
- Invisibility materials can speed up web by ten per cent
- The Pill may change women's choice in men
- Immunotherapy: could it be the cure for cancer?
- Victory salute is hardwired into our genes
- Scientists find out why chilli peppers are hot
- Douglas fir stops growing because it can't pull water any higher
- Virtual creatures and robots take on 'a life of their own'
- Two invisibility cloak materials developed
- 'Cellular rubbish' may hold key to ageing process
- Earth like planets should be quite common in the universe
- Extreme rainstorms will rise by 10 per cent by 2050
- New fingerprint method can spot drugs or explosives
- Strange sex life of melons exposed
- Brain scans could help prevent suicides
- Why eyewitness evidence can be useless
- 'Disease in a dish' method could lead to treatments for many serious disorders
- Scientists close to cracking neanderthal DNA code
- Olympic Games drug testing means 'cheaters escape and innocents tarnished'
- Bionic eye heralds cyborg revolution
- Viruses can catch colds, says study that redefines life itself
- The dairy industry is 9 millennia old
- Dogs 'may be able to read their owner's minds'
- Small, cheap, swarming robots unveiled
- Can we make software that comes to life?
- Lost world frozen 14m years ago found in Antarctica
- Vitamin C injections could slow cancers
- Luminous mollusc can tell when you're going to get ill
- Budgies can teach their owners how to learn
July
- Patient's own cells mass produced for first time in lab
- 'Let there be light' genesis moment in a computer
- Secrets of Antikythera Mechanism, world's oldest calculating machine, revealed
- Liquid lake identified on Saturn moon Titan
- 'When you're full, you're shortening your lifespan'
- 'Gossip helps to glue society together'
- Religions thrived to protect against disease
- New Alzheimer's drug is twice as effective as current treatments
- Shrew that drinks 3.8% palm beer every night, but never gets drunk
- Blood test could be cancer 'crystal ball'
- Boffin Log
- Reason found for massive ocean oxygen loss that formed Caribbean
- Amazon tribe has no words for different numbers
- Mars was once 'a great place to live'
- Lizard ancestor spread its ribs to glide
- Tasmanian devil resorts to teenage sex to beat cancer
- Schizophrenia discovery opens path to new treatments
- Old drugs get a new lease of life
- One third of coral species face extinction
- New hope for autism treatments from gene finds
- Moon water overturns lunatic theory
- Game theory could save the world
- Flatfish missing link tells twisted tale
- Fear circuits can be tweaked to make us braver
- New instruments could provide advanced earthquake warnings
- Bright bugs discover new drugs
- Songbirds have superfast muscles
- Sweaty music find could help develop new treatments
- Plumage breakthrough for dinosaurs
- How we keep our ancient reptilian wits about us
- Nuclear industry undermined by savage science cuts
- Mystery of the meat-eaters' molecule
- Upland Britain more resistant to climate change
- Nanoparticle smart bombs used to target cancer cells
- Nanoparticle smart bombs used to target cancer cells
- Famished gene is found and could help tackle obesity
- Sir John Suslton says NHS under threat from commercialisation of science
- Cot death risk test to come from brain chemical find
- General relativity passes the test
- Red wine drug could make elderly more vigorous but not live longer
- Hand gestures are 'universal language'
June
- Scientist identify brain 'core' that could reveal secrets of thought
- Chameleon that lives most of life in an egg
- Coffee could halt multiple sclerosis
- Scientists find 'law of war' that predicts attacks
- Martian gardeners could grow vegetables on Mars
- Birds of a feather revealed in evolutionary tree
- Mars rover landing site revealed
- Stephen Hawking's explosive new theory
- Asteroid impact made Mars two-faced
- Alzheimer's gene provides drug hope
- Swamp fossil reveals how we got our legs
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge to be rebuilt to look like a cell
- MP committee fears over lab biosecurity
- 'Sense of adventure' makes us marketing targets
- Fossilised flesh reveals ichthyosaur secrets
- Scientists repair brain using GM embryo cells
- Science: boffin log
- Polling station location 'could affect your vote'
- Neanderthal tools reveal advanced technology
- Scientists use 'biological alchemy' to convert one cell type into another
- Top of sea warming 50% faster than thought
- Songbirds eavesdrop to find best nests
- Body-shapes are 'down to limbless, headless fish-like creature'
- Chimpanzees 'Sex And The City' style lives
- Lower testosterone in men can lead to earlier death
- Photo of great grandfather of modern computers found
- Government 'turns blind eye to science funding criticism'
- Science: why we scream
- Vegan diet and yoga fight cancer
- Pulling faces 'happens for a purpose'
- 'Molecular archaeology' offers new way to stop allergies
- Cystic fibrosis drug targets cause not symptoms
- Date seed, 2000 years old, is successfully grown
- 'Death of a star' captured on film by telescopes
- Nasa rocket with Glast telescope blasts-off
- All tree leaves have 'thermostat' that maintains temperature
- Experimental Alzheimer's drug is 'astonishing'
- Scientists discover why a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
- ADHD 'may be beneficial for some jobs'
- Join the Beatles on our Magical Memory Tour
- World's first commercial bionic hand
- Cheltenham Festival - diary
- Brain protein cuts excessive alcohol drinking
- Woolly mammoths - there were two kinds
- Mind reading by MRI scan raises 'mental privacy' issue
- Time Team's Tony Robinson: Archaeological sites need Protection
- Most influential women scientist search is on
- Swab test to tell if you're a late sleeper or early riser
- Full stomach best for making big decisions
- Chief scientist calls for 'green' food revolution
- Eighties fashion 'violates laws of nature'
- Mobile phones can help predict epidemics
- Embryo-free stem cell research gets boost
- Stem cells 'could have helped Lorenzo Odone'
- Red wine stops effects of high-fat diet
- Bees learn new languages easily
- Robot that can build itself to be unveiled
- Motherly love - worm that eats mummy
- Being fat may not be due to how much you eat
- Malaria drug to be made from 'synthetic biology' organism
- Stone Age man killed to get a woman
- Cosmos may be teeming with alien worlds
- Study suggest testosterone levels may be driven by looks
- Chlorine in water increases birth defects
- Live longer, hang out with young people
May
- Fat, eccentric star puzzles astronomers
- New insect repellent last three times longer
- Scientists heat matter to hotter than surface of the Sun
- What was it like to walk on the Moon?
- What was it like to walk on the Moon?
- What was it like to walk on the Moon?
- What was it like to walk on the Moon?
- Friendly gut bugs could fight diabetes
- Scientists uncover secret of eternal youth
- Ghost toddler from ancient Egypt on show as art
- Love hormone could banish shyness
- Orkney Islanders have Siberian ancestors
- How weary travellers can avoid jetlag
- Canyons on Mars formed by 'megafloods'
- Oceans turning acidic decades earlier
- Supernova sighting leaves atronomers agog
- Missing link fossil settles frog evolution debate
- Research gives new insight into food, drug and alcohol addictions
- Science: could martinis be the secret of Bond's success?
- Science: could martinis be the secret of Bond's success?
- How a magnet turned off my speech
- Biotech: crunch time for UK biotech
- Hope in fight against preeclampsia
- Amazon doomed by too much clean air
- Bubbles the key to a healthier diet
- Platypus as bizarre as it looks
- Embryo research: a source of hope or horror?
- Breastfeeding makes children smarter
- The reason fat people find it hard to lose weight is found
- Oxygen-starved ocean 'deserts' emerging
- Impossible smells exhibition opens
- Baby birds babble like human infants
- Oestrogen is the 'fuel of power'
April
- Starlings know if you are watching them
- MPs report blames Government and a quango for science funding crisis
- Step forward in predicting disease hotspots
- Acoustic cloaking material 'is inevitable'
- Harvard's baby brain research lab
- Why alcohol makes us do stupid things
- World's first cloned horse has foal
- 'Brain training' games do work, study finds
- Scientists nearer to synthetic spider silk
- Blood pressure drug could help weight loss
- How to cure blindess
- Chemotherapy alternative will target only cancer cells
- Robotic exoskeleton replicates Iron Man
- Wetter Arctic may lead to colder winters
- Global warming fix could damage ozone layer
- Alzheimer's drug may be tested on humans in 2 years
- Chicken is T rex's closes living relative
- Hubble telescope archive images released
- GM papaya to reveal gene modification effects
- Beetle adds to Canada's CO2 emissions
- Stem cell first for heart attack victims
- Scientists claim to 'see dark matter'
- Brand names 'as old as civilisation itself'
- Social status is hard-wired into our brains
- Germanic invaders 'did not bring apartheid' to Anglo Saxon Britain
- Diet during pregnancy can affect baby's sex, new research suggests
- Walking in any direction without moving
- Stephen Hawking: Aliens probably exist
- Oil painting 'invented in Asia, not Europe'
- Self-belief in sport 'as good as performance-enhancing drugs'
- Could a 'brain cap' warn us of mistakes we are about to make?
- Breast cancer gene fingerprint find
- 'Metabolic fingerprint' linked to high blood pressure
- Nanomagnet system could target tumors
- World's smallest transistor is the size of a molecule
- Cloning alternative may help save white rhino
- Scientists make music into mathematical shapes
- Skin patch could boosts red blood cell
- Using mind control to make flies sing
- Flu study sheds light on how it spreads
- New technique reverses growth of cancer blood vessels
- Before the Big Bang - the Big Bounce
- Synchrotron X rays 'see' inside fossils
- Tennis study shows John McEnroe was right about line calls - 40pc of the time
- Listen and driving 'as bad as drink driving'
- Scientists predict 500,000GB mp3 player
- Baroness Greenfield's £22m plans for the Royal Institution
- Elephant ancestors were semi-aquatic
- Genetic mutation causes Tea rose scent
- Scientists invent microscopic operating table for 1mm worm
- Anti-asbestos drug could prevent harmful effects
- Scientists unveil revolutionary 'racetrack' computer memory
- Drug that protects against radiation effects
- 'Yeti' fly lost for 40 years is rediscovered
- CDs and DVDs to be made with CO2 emissions
- Campaigners against human embryo research launch legal challenge
- Laser creates brightest light on Earth
- Hybrids: separating hope from the hype
- Prof Peter Higgs interview: Smashing atoms at CERN and the hunt for the 'God' particle
- Nanoparticle fear over anti-odour socks
- Alligators could help fight MRSA
- How tall you are linked to vulnerability to disease
- Earth's sinister beginning: the origins of left-handedness
- Nobel winner criticises Catholic Church over hybrid embryos
- Unhappy with your shape? It's your genes
- Fossilised poo from oldest American people found
- Scientists create material one atom thick
- Moth that can travel at 55mph
- 'IPCC seriously underplays climate change'
- Lung cancer gene variation may lead to new anti-smoking treatments
- New development for fighting skin cancer
- Teenagers 'need an extra hour in bed'
- GM takes a decade to clear
- Babies 'are natural born statisticians'
- Gold necklace found is 'oldest in Americas'
March
- Humans were final cause of woolly mammoth extinction
- Science: monkeys were the first doctors
- Menopause stops female competition
- Directions from anywhere: maths problem solved
- Subliminal messages make us work harder
- Bid to reduce world's smog problem
- Brightest light ever seen by astronomers
- Milestone in hunt for extraterrestrial life
- Those who resort to punishment are losers
- Bird brain study sheds light on why they sing in spring
- What is the matter with the universe?
- Optimum age gap theory disputed
- Feminists appreciate wider range of body sizes
- Synaesthesia could affect half a million children
- Michelangelo's David has dodgy legs
- Cancer treatment: The chickens that lay golden eggs
- Boffin log
- Cancer treatment: The chickens that lay golden eggs
- We prefer people we think are similar to ourselves
- Way to target genes devised for gene therapy
- Geckos use their tails to run up walls
- Drug to cure blindness is 'major breakthrough'
- Possibilty of drug that makes limbs regrow
- Reservoirs keep sea levels down
- Why some fruit are long
- Alien life signs on AA Tauri
- Fifteen genes link to long life discovered
- Streams 'are the world's kidneys'
- DNA building blocks five billionths of a metre across created
- Breast cancer 'master gene' breakthrough
- Flaw in the £7bn Iter fusion power plan
- Breakthrough on gout gene
- National Science Week: alien life begins at home
- Molecular computer could be 'nanobot brain'
- Study finds increasing evidence of health problem in Gulf War veterans
- Monkeys communicate in sentences
- UK astronomers to broadcast adverts to aliens
- Grand Canyon is 17 million years old
- Potential vaccine for flesh eating bacteria
- British sense of fair play proven by science
- Sea cucumbers to help fix brains
- Middle classes 'bigger threat than climate change'
- Comb jellies were our first ancestor
- Brain trick opens possibilites for smart hearing aids
- High radiation exposure linked to heart disease
- Divers dig deep for the hole truth about our ancestors
- Boffin log
- Too many cars cause traffic jams
- Maths flaw found after 140 years
- Short people could live longer
- Plants evolving to self destruct
- Lazy eye hope for adults
February
- Darwin was wrong about (chicken) evolution
- Scientists to teach 'toddlerbot' to speak
- Bats use same tricks as insect to fly
- How roots know which way to grow
- Rainy outlook? Blame it on the bacteria
- Motor neuron disease breakthrough
- Master of deception's secrets revealed
- Scientists "see" ghosts
- African DNA has more genetic diversity
- The new theories that are killing time
- 'Frog from hell' that ate baby dinosaurs
- Gecko inspired waterproof adhesive bandage
- Why beer harms science
- Leeches offer MS hope
- Why scientists love games consoles
- Embryo free way to make cells 'safe'
- Doctoral prance shows scientists can dance
- Clothing that could power your iPod
- Chaos wrecks the balance of nature
- Device mimics black hole event horizon
- Immune system 'could be turbocharged to fight disease'
- Primitive bat fossil settles sonar dispute
- Fishing bycatch is 'junk food' for sea birds
- Current measurse 'won't stop bovine TB'
- Could women grow their own sperm?
- King penguin faces extinction due to climate change
- Exotic sex lives of oysters revealed
- Tiny flying reptile with 10 inch wingspan found
- Napoleon didn't die from arsenic poisoning
- Self-cleaning wool and silk developed using nanotechnology
- Monkeys can recognise who is talking
- 'Test for depression' available within a decade
- Supercomputer 'virtual human' to help fight disease
- Sleep can help obese children lose weight
- Kiwi English from Britain, not Australia
- Knee-brace gizmo to generate electricity
- Secret of John Coltrane's high notes revealed
- Scientists create 'see-through' fish
- Time travellers from the future 'could be here in weeks'
- Bugs poisoned Earth with rotten egg gas
- High-tech backpack helps reveal lemur's flying secret
- Men can detect when a women is 'on heat', says study
- 'Resistance training' better for weight loss
- Humans are evolving to resist disease
- Pupils go wide eyed when we dither
- Anti-cancer jab 'could be available in a few years'
- Fathers are important in baboon society
January
- Lost city could have been cradle of life
- America is running dry
- Language development mirrors species evolution
- Scientists discover enzyme that controls ovulation
- Deep brain stimulation may help Alzheimer patient's memories
- 'Red wine' based drug may fight cancer
- DNA key to designer nanomaterials
- Why apes are awful capitalists
- Larry Brilliant, of Google.org: Internet 'is pandemic early warning system'
- Chameleons change colour to impress opposite sex
- Fraile were more susceptible to Black Death
- Under the tongue is best place for vaccines
- Skin test shows if you're late or early riser
- Scientist genetically engineer socially-awkward mice
- Allergens in breast milk help tolerance
- Scientist finds traces of life from billions of years ago
- Jupiter atmospheric change detailed by astronomers
- Artificial life being created
- MyHeritage.com aids improved face-recognition technology
- Birds shed light on female fickleness
- Is our cosmos teeming with alien 'unmatter'?
- Birth of flight 'due to angle of flapping'
- Scientists cloning more papers than ever
- Wheel has been reinvented
- Relax the brain for that Eureka! moment
- Treasury accused over science research
- Waiting to have children part of evoloution
- Boffin log
- Gene therapy's 'side-effect free pain relief'
- Compact synchrotron to use simple laser
- Ministers ignored physics crisis warnings
- 'Pac Man' compound could gobble-up nuclear waste
- Scientists target deadly cancer stem cells
- Pain discovery may lead to new drug
- Modern texters scooped 3,000 years ago;-)
- Friendly bacteria could help cut flab
- Columbus did bring syphilis from America
- How to live forever
- GM carrot may help treat osteoporosis
- Teenage pregnancy common in dinosaurs
- The end of earthquakes and volcanoes?
- First bioartificial heart may signal end of organ shortage
- Hypnotism does change the brain
- Cosmic snapshot of dark energy enigma
- Cursed Hope Diamond blood glow explained
- Easter island drug fights tumours
- Scraps stop breast cancer in its tracks
- Fun guy says sex one billion years old
- Divorce and marriage "like horse and carriage"
- Antimatter cloud in our galaxy mapped
- Bristol was home to pygmy dinosaurs
- Chimpanzees need role models
- Bald truth about dinosaur feathers
- Monarch butterflies use human clock to migrate
- Message in a 2,400-year-old bottle
- Sunshine - vitamin D and heart disease included
- Antiageing drug shows promise in first human test
- Paralysis could be treated by nerve rewiring
- Boosting nature's anticancer mechanisms
- Cosmic web to be unravelled
- PC users called to revitalise search for ET
- How the English gave American bowel cancer
2007
December
- Science: Boffin log
- Science: The science of dreams - the results
- Aliens 'obsessed with Earth's weather'
- Harry Potter had wizard genes, say scientist
- Bad news dads - mother-in-law's visiting
- 'Nanoyarn' protein linked to Alzheimer's could be super-fibre
- Magic carpets a reality, says professor
- When whales walked the Earth
- Why you are cleverer and simpler than thought
- Autism study offers hope for Fragile X syndrome
- High price may not make champion horse
- To escape flu - move to the country
- Marine mammals study offers brain damage hope
- Badger cull could 'double fox population'
- Warwick University scientists invent colour Sudoku
- Science: The death of Santa's beard
- Science: Boffin log
- Hopes for obesity after fat cells discovery
- Quantum genesis: How life was born on Earth
- Scientists reveal genetic code of moss
- UK to pull out of atom smasher project
- Long life is in the genes
- Orangutans share a joke too
- Scientists identify origins of freak waves
- Microorganisms could help increase oil production
- Women's backbones facilitate pregnancy
- Wealth is key for marriage, study claims
- Honda's Asimo robot can now charge itself
- Science: The software that bugs you to lose weight
- Pygmies life expectancy is between 16 and 24
- Cancer cells are squishier than normal
- Researchers find breast cancer trigger
- Scientists crack how insect bounces on water
- Failing to learn from mistakes is genetic
- Hope for new schizophrenia drugs
- No clone method treats first disease
- Do fluffy dark stars litter our cosmos?
- London to lead in medical research
- Elephants pee to keep in touch with family
- Fitness, not fat, determines life expectancy
- Why men like to marry younger women
- Mankind needs to make artificial life to survive
- Science: 'Who's Who' in science?
- How to cut your acrylamide levels
November
- Woman's skin turned to embryo cells
- New scan charts cancer treatment success
- Our male ancestors had harems of females
- "Formal play" better prepares children for school
- Hubble telescope reveals galaxy like Milky Way
- Red wine may provide cure for diabetes
- Dogs display aspects of human intelligence
- Did life once thrive on Evil Twin Venus?
- Alzheimer's research 'chasing wrong target'
- Science: Can we stop anti-social behaviour?
- Science: Boffin log
- Missing grey matter may drive obsession
- Experts suffer more nanoangst than we do
- Monkeys strike for better rewards
- Cell transplant hope for blood diseases
- Relative wealth 'makes you happier'
- Antidepressant may hold key to long life
- Babies 'can tell friend from foe'
- Technology goes bling with silicon gems
- Thousand-mile mudslide found off Africa
- Robocomedian, the comic computer
- Sea scorpion 'was bigger than a human'
- Sex threat to polar bears
- Stem cell research revolution spells end for therapeutic cloning
- Parkinson's gene therapy 'does work'
- Computer workout that boosts memory
- Science: Boffin log
- Science: Measuring creativity
- Wormholes could end messy wiring and slow computers
- How to stop allergies killing
- Dolly creator Prof Ian Wilmut shuns cloning
- 'Robo-roach' gets inside pests' heads
- Can't think at night? Blame 'darkness hormone'
- 'Vacuum cleaner' dinosaur discovered in Niger
- Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything
- 'Hypernova' star death explained at last
- Climate change joins fishing as cod threat
- Old drug offers new MS hope
- Science Writer Awards 2008: Will you be Sir David's new discovery?
- Existing rainforest 'is irreplacable'
- Earliest chocolate drink found
- Good vibrations may strengthen elderly bones
- Britain 'faces CJD epidemic' from infected beef
- Cosmic ray mystery solved
- Climate change: Rising tides
- Lung cancer ravages revealed
- Arthritis DNA clue uncovered
- A quantum theory of dreams?
October
- Boffin Log
- Science: Horrors of Hallowe'en are all in the mind
- Lap dancers help fertility scientists
- We can thank fish for our hands and feet
- Future of science: 'We will have the power of the gods'
- The limits of gene ancestry tests
- James Watson has Nobel Syndrome
- Men age faster 'because of Stone Age sex'
- Sex scandal solved by scientists
- Scientists chart how words are changing
- Are we missing a dimension of time?
- Science spend does not match Gordon Brown's aspirations
- Sir Martin Evans on his 'astonishing' Nobel prize
- Windscale fire: 'We were too busy to panic'
- Gordon Brown's 'serious economic mistake'
- Chilli anaesthetic turns off pain
- Anorexia is like ecstasy for sufferers
- Resistant bird flu alert
- Creationists rewrite natural history
- Science: How to win a Nobel Prize
- Science: Boffin log
- Neanderthal empire grows
September
- New clue could curb spread of breast cancer
- Dementia "type three diabetes"
- Science: Is it possible to make science sexy?
- Elephantiasis parasite worm DNA cracked
- Parallel universe proof boosts time travel hopes
- New target for longevity pills
- How men could use their testicles to fix their hearts
- Science: Roger Highfield's boffin log
- Science Museum: Toys to inspire children
- Science: Roger Highfield's Boffin Log
- Eyes point to new ideas about autism
- St Francis of Assisi robe is a fake
- How cosmic billiards doomed the dinosaurs
- Schizophrenia genes blessed by evolution
- Rain helped us to evolve
- Craig Venter reads his entire DNA 'recipe book'
- Industrial Revolution: Survival of the richest, not the fittest
August
- Why females fancy foreigners
- Where fear lives in our minds
- Gene link to obsessive behaviour
- Shining a light on a world of complexity
- How Henrietta's cells gave us new hope
- Crows are the Einsteins of the avian world
- How to wipe a bad memory
- Star Mira's comet-like tail stuns scientists
- Alien life could be gas
- Yawning gap filled by scientists
- Flexible battery is paper-thin
- Isaac Newton scooped by Indian astronomers
- The meaning of dreams
- Boffin log
- Satellite tracks elephant seal's polar journey
- Where are the dinosaurs, Daddy?
- Gender bender study breakthrough
- Toddler jabbering "easy to explain"
- Demise of tuna began a century ago
- Our brains crackle to the sound of silence
- New warning about chemical in plastic
- Fish eye clue to blindness treatments
- New hope for Stephen Hawking
July
- Mice engineered to be schizophrenic
- Were Neanderthals our enemies or lovers?
- Boffin Log
- The big question
- How to lick disability
- Ancient galaxy find
- Novel cancer target found
- Boffin Log
- Through the keyhole of the Royal Institution
- Research amplifies concerns about chemicals
- How aphids become suicide bombers
- 'Sun not responsible for climate change'
- Harry Potter magic - fact behind the fiction
- DNA shows when Greenland was green
- How politicians will con Second Life residents
- Jellyfish to be made into cosmetics
- Blood test for human mad cow disease
- Gene may diagnose childhood asthma early
- Saturn's strange spongy world
- Boffin Log
- Illusions that will twist your mind
- Glowing clouds at the edge of space
June
- Stem cell trial warning
- Macho dads have wimpish daughters
- Missing link to revolutionise stem cell treatments
- 'How I found Queen Hatshepsut'
- Jumbo problem solved at last
- The implantable artificial lung
- Boffin Log
- How to build a greener H-bomb
- Ancient virus left us vulnerable to Aids
- Lunatic spinning mirror to probe cosmos
- Could this be your distant relative?
- Egg-straordinary resistance to decay
- Parasites get gene codes cracked
- Life just got a lot more complicated
- Secrets of singing revealed
- Stem cell science over key hurdle
- Could plastic grow on trees?
- Paying taxes 'can give you a warm glow inside'
- The double death star
- Branson: How to launch Stephen Hawking into space
- Aliens really do exist!
- Boffin Log
- The recipe for success
- Starfish, atom smashers and cider
- When DID we start getting fat?
- The 80,000 year old bling
- Who will be the next David Attenborough?
- Who will be the next David Attenborough?
- Scientist discover previous ozone thinning
May
- Feathered dinosaur theory won't fly
- Alien waterworld found by astronomers
- Genes might help you learn Chinese
- Fat? Blame the bugs in your guts
- Boffin Log
- Babies 'can see language'
- In need of directions? Men, stay straight
- Does a poor upbringing make you more left wing?
- Boffin Log
- Clock gene implicated in weight gain
- A DNA portrait of European history
- Boffin Log
- Can flies think?
- So why does a popped balloon go bang?
- Why athletes should look to the whippet
- How Imhotep gave us medicine
- Marsupial melanoma clue
- The secret of flocking revealed
- Stem cells 'can mend an ailing heart'
- Supernova explosion 'best star-show ever'
- Yeast engineered to sniff out explosives
- The concept of race is meaningless
- New target in the fight against dementia
- Why the elderly are easier to con
April
- Boffin log
- Birth of the Atlantic triggered global warming
- Revolutionary bionic arm unveiled
- The secret of the swift's aerial mastery
- Cheers! The mystery of beer froth solved at last
- Another reason dogs are like us
- Ultimate scales can weigh cells
- Dr Roger's Home Experiments
- Sun in 3D will boost solar storm forecast
- Drug could treat 2,000 hereditary disorders
- Vast rainforest found deep in a coal mine
- Secret of flowering discovered (again)
- More proof of global warming?
- Boffin log
- How to find Earth's alien twin
- The Robin Hood impulse
- Air travel threatens biodiversity
- The diabetic who is part pig
- A fresh future for flat old beer
- Boffin log
- Old drugs offer a new way to fight brain cancer
- Cocktail could make superbugs evolve to be nicer
- How to keep a job for life
- How to be really bad at maths, in a flash
- Boffin log
March
- Monkeys are more cultured than we think
- Boffin log
- Why we need the male mozzie
- Llama 'trail' reveals fall of mighty Incas
- Nuthatches can speak chickadee
- Boffin bits
- Looking for life on the ocean wave
- GM mosquito may combat malaria
- Scientists stumped by 100m years of chastity
- Is this the fabric of the universe?
- Where is that woodpecker?
- Green tea may help battle cancer
- Do microbes have the answer?
- How to make science really shine
- Rats are smarter than we think
- Has science found the moody hormone?
- Cocoa ingredient 'rivals penicillin'
- Robot salamander replays key moment in evolution
- Bad-tempered women 'can blame it on genes'
- Secret of exam success? Rosy memories
- New DNA weapon to catch rapists
- Cancer diagnosis and treatment boosted by gene hunt
- This could be your dream diet
- Eating less could help you live to 100
- What really happens in out of body experiences
- Genes could give diagnosis of lung cancer
- Blood test could avoid miscarriages
- Ancient observatory lights up history of solar worship
- Drug addiction could be down to your genes
- Flying into the eye of the storm
February
- Boff Idol launches in London
- Scientists create world's thinnest material
- Skin cell study offers cancer clue
- Fashionable snow sports threaten alpine wildlife
- Brain yields new clues to obesity
- Why we are closer to cousins from our mother's side
- Snails and slugs not as slow as they look
- Milk allergy 'caused by Stone Age genes'
- Alpine skiing on a slippery slope
- Cosmic grafitti artist caught
- New target for schizophrenia drugs
- Robots hold key to evolution of language
- Giant step to finding alien planets that glow with life
- Pregnancy clue to multiple sclerosis treatment
- Clue to cause of dyslexia
- Snack attack gene link
- The prehistory of man and bug
- Can fat heal the heart?
- New window opens on human development
- Men are easier to clone than women
- New genes point to diabetes risk
- Mystery of moth flight revealed
- LSD reveals its secrets
- Human skin teems with bacteria
- Why male butterflies are all aflutter
- How global warming affects fish stocks
- Laws of Nature survive attack by Nano Demon
January
- An eye-opener for the atomic world
- 'Switch' that may turn off cancer
- Teacher's masterclass on how to win
- Sex life to ex-life
- How museums destroyed their DNA heritage
- The politics of stem cell ethics
- Is Britain prepared for the Big One? (No)
- Could breast implants trigger disease?
- From icehouse to greenhouse
- Under the haze, scientists find the lost lakes of Titan
- Why you never forget how to ride a bike
- Scientists engineer cattle immune to BSE
2006
December
- Laughter: it's catching
- Humble shoelace tag worth more than gold
- Cosmic bang baffles boffins
- Bad news for the tooth fairy, good for dental patients
November
- Typhoid is with us to stay
- Revealed: how to fix a broken heart
- Blind man challenges the theory of déjà vu
- What flavour is the word 'platypus'?
- How the alchemists used smart materials science
- Listening in on the birth pangs of the Earth's crust
- How hormones decorate showy males
- DNA variety is the spice of human life
- Wasps are poor losers
- Fish have personalities too
- Scientists spin cells into a living yarn
- Mutations that could cause a pandemic
- Dead Sea Scrolls lead to Deadly Toilet
- The sweet perfume of money
- Official: politicians don't reveal the truth
- Snails venom signals a pain free future
- Gene glitch may lead to hair loss
- Why we are all urchins
- Toothsome finding shakes human family tree
- How jet lag could shorten your life span
- Why birds of a feather flock together
- Killer virus meets its match
October
- The virtual medical man
- Mammoth task of reversing history
- Sealed with... 146 muscles
- Why exactly is this ride so thrilling?
July
- Are these DNA clocks the key to longer life?
- Is this the oldest human virus
- Did Sellafield workers seed leukaemia?
- Imagine what she had to eat for her lunch
June
- Can they make you invisible?
- Why these super-organisms can't live without these bugs...
- Fast forward to cartoon reality
May
- Can this really kill you?
- Craig Venter Interview
- Big questions for the new faces of science
- Null Hypothesis May 2006
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mad boffin
what makes my blood boil...
What is Science all about?
I am quietly optimistic that the public will become more sceptical about the practical benefits of discoveries made in the lab and more appreciative of what science is really about — basic curiosity, rationality and the never-ending dialogue between ideas and experiments. With luck, the public will spend more time gazing up at the blue skies of science and not down at the brown torrent of parochial and humdrum expectations about what science can do for them. Science does not ...
Links
Miscellaneous
My Christmas Lecture 2007
Celebrity Video Interviews
- Sir David Attenborough, and others
- Sir Richard Branson
- Larry Brilliant
- David Cameron
- Richard Dawkins
- Baroness Greenfield
- Raj Persaud
- Chris Stringer
Special Projects
- My kitchen experiments
- Cheltenham Science Festival
- FameLab A kind of 'Pop Idol' of science, even 'Boff Idol'!
- Science Writer The science writer competition for young people, which I set up in 1987
- Visions of Science and Technology. A science photography competition
My Favourites
Thanks to
Simon SinghJad Marrouche
Raj Persaud
David Johnson
Brian Millar