“Must go faster!” Could you outrun a T-rex?
Congratulations! Your time machine works! You’ve travelled back more than 66 million years and arrived in the Cretaceous period. But, oh no! You’ve barely had chance to admire your surroundings before a thumping shakes the ground beneath you. Suddenly you notice a shadow lurking in the forest. A large shadow. And then a Tyrannosaurus Rex […]
Could memes help to predict a zombie apocalypse?
Imagine waking up one morning to a silent world; there is no rumble of traffic, no aeroplanes in the sky; the general buzz of life has just stopped. You get out of bed and walk outside only to find a horde of crazed and decaying individuals walking towards you baying for brains. The end of […]
Game, set and match to graphene
With Wimbledon in full swing, it’s yet to be decided who’ll meet on Centre Court for the final – but it’s clear that centre stage belongs to graphene. Many of this year’s players at the world-famous event will be carrying racquets that have been reinforced with the advanced material – including Andy Murray and Novak […]
Why it’s time to be frank about nuclear
In order for people to seriously consider nuclear as an alternative to fossil fuels, the industry needs to continue being open, honest and straightforward in its discourse. That’s the conclusion of ‘Making Sense of Nuclear’, which is released today (June 28th – download it here). The new publication has been produced by Sense About Science with […]
On your bike! UoM hero of engineering Beatrice Shilling celebrated in new documentary
War hero; pioneering engineer; champion motorcycle racer – these are just a handful of the labels you could apply to Beatrice Shilling. And yet, ask someone on the street if her name rings a bell, and the answer will likely be “no”. That’s one of the reasons for the new BBC documentary series Invented In […]
Waiter! There’s a cricket in my printer
Remember when a printer was just something that spurted out paper documents and emails and that you occasionally (okay, frequently) shouted at? Chances are this is still the extent of your relationship with your printer – but that could all soon change. For instance, imagine using a printer to prepare your perfect snack. A delicate […]
New world fair lights the way to future energy
Since London’s The Great Exhibition of 1851, world fairs and expos have introduced and popularised some of the most important inventions of the modern age. Don’t believe us? Take a look at your phone. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention was first shown to the public at the Philadelphia World Fair of 1876. Hard as it may […]
Thought that Jurassic Park could be real? Then think again…
We’ve all seen the film(s); dinosaurs running free in a safari park where you can literally step back in time, until it all goes horribly wrong and you find yourself cowering under the kitchen sink as velociraptors prowl past. You’d think they’d learn after four (soon-to-be five) films that dinosaurs in the modern age just isn’t […]
Space travel: the future
As summer approaches, you’re no doubt already mentally planning your holiday as you slave over a hot keyboard. Tenerife. Miami. What about Venus? Maybe that’s a bit too hot – plus it’d be a pretty long journey. Space tourism has been something us humans have dreamed of for generations. Travelling around the planets in our […]
The science of storytelling
Ever wondered why Schrödinger’s cat became so famous – or who Schrödinger is, for that matter? And could an infinite number of monkeys really type the complete works of Shakespeare? And if they could, how does this help scientists anyway? Well, it turns out that cats stuck in boxes, monkeys with aspirations to write and […]