We are revising our modules for the 2012/2013 academic year (note that this is not the next academic year, the 2011/2012 year, but the one after that – we plan ahead here in British Universities). The University is going to a system of 8 15-credit modules per year. So another academic, Joe Keddie, and are […]
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Some of the most interesting stuff at the crystallisation conference in Maine last week, was on trying to understand how living organisms control crystallisation. Many living organisms, including us, need tough strong structures and many crystals are strong, and much harder than living cells which are soft and squidgy. So many organisms have evolved to […]
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As we learnt in school, some planets, asteroids, comets etc orbit faster than the Earth, for example Venus takes 225 days to orbit the Sun. And some orbit slower, for example Mars takes 687 days to orbit the Sun. Now astronomers have discovered an asteroid that orbits at exactly the same speed as Earth, i.e., […]
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Yesterday, I was sent, as I periodically am, the “Old Newportonian” newsletter, for old members of my school – Newport Free Grammar School, a comprehensive in Essex. I looked through it, to see what news there was of the school, and of old pupils. It’s a pretty short newsletter, and I didn’t see mention of […]
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My trip to the USA is almost over. I am writing this in Boston airport. The conference has just finished, and I really enjoyed it. It was very informal, as good conferences should be. The chair of one session used this: to kick off her summary of the applications of the research in her session.
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Before heading out to a conference in Maine (on the north atlantic coast of USA) I visited a couple of museums that are part of Harvard University. Now Harvard is one of the most prestigious, and one of the richest universities in the world. Wikipedia reckons its endowment is $26 billion (£16 billion). Harvard is […]
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