Recent Posts

• A PhD should be about improving society, not chasing academic kudos. - Implicit in this recent article is the often heard argument that for science to be more relevant, or more clearly benefit society, individual research projects need to be scrutinized for their societal impact. In other words, if we want to increase the benefit of science to society, we need to increase the direct benefit of […]
• Scrap the Iran deal because it only offers weak protection - “The deal has failed to live up to the original goal of the international community when talks with Tehran started: to stop Iran from ever getting nuclear weapons. Instead, at best, the current deal only delays it by 10-15 years.” This is an interesting argument which has cropped up repeatedly in the context of debate […]
• Jaguar Land Rover and the potential consequences of a “bad Brexit” - Yesterday, the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover took the unusual step of issuing a public statement about the potential consequences of Brexit, the UK’s departure from the EU, if no satisfactory deal is reached. In his statement, he claims that “A bad Brexit deal would cost Jaguar Land Rover more than £1.2bn profit each year” […]
• We have a finite environment—the planet - “We have a finite environment—the planet. Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist.” The slogan “you can’t have infinite growth on a finite planet” or “with finite resources” is a catchy one that sums up a concern about the planet’s limited resources […]