Abstract: You could be more connected to your career than you realise...
"What's in a name?" wrote Shakespeare, "that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". An admirable line for a man who was in the wrong job - he should have been a soldier, or at least an ironmonger. The clue is in his own name.
Not so long ago I was doing some research for an article on bar-headed geese (not for this magazine obviously). They're remarkable creatures that, it is believed, can fly right over the top of the Himalayas, at altitudes that would kill a human. Anyway, my investigations led me to a study by a Dr Hawkes. I suggested to her that it was interesting that someone called Hawkes was studying birds. She agreed.
But then she took me in a direction where things
What’s in a name? Your job, possibly
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
Abstract: A Beatles song banned...and its lasting legacy...
It saddens me to admit that I can count on one hand the memories I have of my father; but every year, with the arrival of Human Rights Day, I smile and think of him. That may sound a little bizarre, but stay with me as I tell you a story.
My parents were divorced when I was young, and my father was absent during those early, formative years when I really needed a strong figure to guide me. Today, if I close my eyes and try to remember him, a handful of blurred, fleeting images appear of a man teaching me to tie my shoes and to play chess, a science textbook left on my bed for a birthday gift, and a tearful goodbye the day before my brother, mother and I left England for
Why women suck at sport
Abstract: There's a hidden reason why women don't seem interested in sport...
I remember the first time my wife beat me in a sport. We had recently got engaged and were playing squash, and she totally pulverised me. Some years later whilst enjoying our honeymoon in the 'berg she beat me at bowls. Later that same evening I challenged her to a game of pool. What happened? Suffice to say it's a game I no longer have the confidence to play.
In fact, if I remember correctly I have a reason for no longer challenging her at putt-putt either. In my defence though, my wife is a former provincial hockey player and I have the hand-eye coordination of a rabid squirrel.
But then my wife is not normal, because women normally shun the idea of playing sport, and it's quite possibly for a reason unknown
Diamond Light Source: Just call it The Eureka Doughnut
Abstract: The DLS is a bit like the LHC, except it works...
"Sure the DLS is a VIP, but it's certainly no LHC." My wife shook her head rather sadly at my pathetic attempt to introduce a bit of pop culture into the realm of physics. She was right. All I had succeeded in doing was making a comparison between two very important particle-accelerators (VIPs) sound like a rap-off between a couple of boy bands.
It's hard to argue that CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) hasn't hogged most of the limelight in the recent study of particle physics - it's big, really big, very expensive and, amongst other things, is apparently looking for all the answers of the Universe - but they're hidden in something particularly small called, rather humbly, The God Particle.
As such the LHC holds all the ingredients of a good story:
Whip out your moral muscle!
Abstract: There's a 'muscle' in your body that could make you healthier...and wealthier...
What's long and hard and brings a smile to the face of many a woman? You're right: it's the decision of whether or not to have another piece of chocolate cake; and if decades of research are anything to go by, it's what makes us successful in life. No, not the chocolate cake...the other thing.
If there's something that separates us humans from our fellow animals, it's the capacity for higher thought. A wild animal never really ponders whether or not to eat something. It never struggles with the greater philosophical question surrounding the morality of consuming another living thing. It just chomps it.
There are of course many examples in the animal kingdom where food, instead of being eaten immediately, is stored for later, or transported to a mate or offspring;
Bar-headed geese and the physiology of high-altitude flight
Abstract: How geese can beat their wings where angels fear to fly...
Imagine you're a mountaineer of the highest order. After years of training and planning you're on Mount Everest; and after weeks of acclimatisation, you've left base camp far behind and are on the last stretch to the summit.
The air is so thin, the temperature so low and the winds so strong that without the specially designed clothing you're wearing and the oxygen you're breathing you'd be dead within minutes. You're clawing your way upward, bit by bit, every breath belaboured even with the precious oxygen you're using.
Eventually, almost unbelievably, you make it to the summit. You have only minutes before you have to descend; but for those few, brief moments in time, you're on top of the world. You gaze around knowing that nothing else lives at this height. You slowly,
Why ‘love’ no longer has any meaning
Abstract: 'Love' no longer has any meaning, and women are, to a degree, to blame...
According to popular culture, you should have been reading this two weeks ago; but if you had, it wouldn't have had any value. In fact, it would have been like what any wife thinks of her husband's opinion in an argument: without foundation.
Poets, writers, and singers have, for thousands of years, made an impact expressing the emotions, trials and fortunes of love. However, I think it's fair to argue, the main focus has always been on what we could call 'young love' - the raw, deeply electrified passion that sparks between two people exploring each other for the first time. This period peaks when one or the other uses the previously unspoken four- letter 'L' word: 'love'.
This word is then used to identify the nature of the relationship
When girls go mad
Abstract: Teenage girls display signs of delirium. No, seriously...
Ask any parent of a teenage girl what the experience is like and they will shake their head, appear for a second as if they're about to burst into tears, and then, from somewhere deep inside, bravely dig up a tired smile and say something like, "we do our best". For such parents, science may now be able to offer a reassuring hand on their shoulder. Sort of.
There's something particularly challenging in raising a teenage girl. It's hard to describe without wanting to reach for a double scotch, a carton of cigarettes and then your cellphone to call your therapist. 'Testing' is a word most parents of teenage girls would use to describe their offspring during this particular period in their lives. It's not a coincidence then that their eventual blossoming into young adulthood
Cost of medicines a killer in developing countries
Abstract: Even essential medicines are not finding their way to developing countries...
Every seven years, hundreds of people from all over the world - academics and people involved in health administration - meet to evaluate and discuss ways in which essential medicines can be used more effectively in non-industrialised, lower and middle-income countries. The third ICIUM (International Conference for Improving Use of Medicines) was held last month in Antalya, Turkey.
Speaking on 8th December at a feedback session from ICIUM 2011, Dr Hans Hogerzeil, Professor of Global Health at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and the former Director for Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies for the World Health Organisation (WHO), presented an appeal for government regulation to address two of the major problems identified at the conference: the highly inflated costs of essential medicines for some of the world's poorest communities -
Beware the mind of the crowd
Abstract: If you think you're in your right mind shopping in a crowd - think again!...
...and they're off! And they stop. This weekend sees the start of 'the madness', when hundreds of thousands of people gallop into the province's shopping centres and promptly come to a grinding halt. They will curse and they will say how much they hate it, all the time unaware that they are undergoing a subtle but fascinating change.
This is one of the most stressful weekends of the year. Many businesses around the country closed shop on Thursday ahead of the long weekend, their staff heading off on their holidays, many of them into KZN. The province is groaning under the strain of the extra bodies, and most of them will squeeze into the already busy shopping centres, credit and debit cards at the ready, impatient to place added