Ian Robinson’s Soapbox

The Cassini imaging team have released some raw images sent back by the Cassini space probe. They are amazing.

This weeks Nature journal has a series of articles on the future impact of computers on science. The articles are all free for non-Nature subscribers. This access is sponsored by Microsoft Research who have a site on the Towards 2020 Science project. You can download the 2020 report from the site or request a print [...]

Credit where credit is due. Kudos to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, who has said in an interview with The Guardian, that creationism and ID should not be taught in schools. Bleedin’ obvious of course, but good that the head of the Anglican Communion is willing to say it publicly.

This is encouraging, although it’s still way down the scale. But it’s good to see that free thinking and common sense have not been completely wiped out in the USA. More power to the godless of America. BTW: Faith is in quotes in the title as atheism isn’t a faith.

There is a good review of Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell, and also Lewis Wolport’s Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast. I like this section: But what really troubles us, and what is not really tackled by either author, is the fact that a belief in the existence of deities invariably comes with an intense urge [...]

Went to see the new movie version of the V for Vendetta books tonight. I loved it. Lots of ideas and layers at work in this film. It certainly made me think. Some people are complaining that it glorifies terrorism. I think the word bollocks is an apt response to that. Well worth seeing. I’ll [...]

There is a good interview with Daniel Dennett it today’s Observer. It’s based around his new book, Breaking the Spell. I like this quote: “Of course I’m going to hurt people’s feelings,’ he says, ‘but I don’t want to offend people casually. I really want to do it on purpose.” Yep. If people are believing [...]

Rumours, and premature press releases!, indicate that a paper in Science by the Cassini Imaging Team suggests that there is liquid water near the surface of the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. That would be interesting in its own right but it seems that they have detected simple organic materials, and that there is [...]