science
The Planets, Series Finale, BBC Two review - ice cold on NeptuneWednesday, 26 June 2019
As an aid to meditation, Professor Brian Cox’s latest series The Planets (BBC Two) could hardly be faulted. A majestic tour of the Solar System awash with computerised imagery, an eerie soundtrack and a travel budget the president of the United... Read more... |
The Planets, BBC Two review - boy-band boffin rides againTuesday, 28 May 2019
Professor Brian Cox, still looking cheekily boy-band-ish at the age of 51, has made himself a child of the universe. His day job is professor of particle physics at Manchester University, but turn him loose with a camera crew and an unfeasibly large... Read more... |
Frans de Waal: Mama's Last Hug review - animal feelingsSunday, 14 April 2019
Primatologist, ethologist, zoologist, biologist, social psychologist, behaviourist – how may ‘ists’ can one person have? Dutch-American scientist Frans de Waal has helped revolutionise how we think about the attributes of fellow animals. He writes... Read more... |
Science Fair review - big on ambition, light on rigourFriday, 19 October 2018
More than 1,700 teenage finalists representing 78 countries take part in the annual International Science and Engineering Fair, virtually the Oscars for exceptional young biologists, physicists, chemists, mathematicians, computer scientists, doctors... Read more... |
Square Rounds, Finborough Theatre review - the science behind warfare, told in verseSaturday, 08 September 2018
The title of Tony Harrison's teacherly entertainment – it can't be called a play – refers to the square bullets invented by James Puckle to kill Muslims in the 18th century. This shocking morsel of information is provided by the brothers Hiram and... Read more... |
Genesis Inc, Hampstead Theatre review - Harry Enfield in ungodly messFriday, 29 June 2018
We are now pretty familiar with the idea that human reproduction (making babies) has been turned into big business, and there have already been several good recent plays about desperate couples and surrogacy – Vivienne Franzmann’s Bodies and... Read more... |
Robbie Thomson XFRMR, Brighton Festival review - lightning strikes outSunday, 20 May 2018
The welcome to Glasgow audio-visual artist Robbie Thomson’s performance engenders a hefty sense of anticipation. It’s almost nervousness-inducing as we’re handed ear-plugs and warned about how very loud it’s going to be. Then, walking into the main... Read more... |
Barbara Ehrenreich: Natural Causes review - counterintuitive wisdom on the big issuesSunday, 15 April 2018
“Wham bam, thank you, ma’am” might be one response to this polemical, wry, hilarious and affecting series of counterintuitive essays by one of the most original and unexpected thinkers around. Barbara Ehrenreich has described herself as a “myth-... Read more... |
Victorian Giants, National Portrait Gallery review - pioneers of photographyThursday, 15 March 2018
It is a very human crowd at Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography. There are the slightly melancholic portraits of authoritative and bearded male Victorian eminences, among them Darwin, Tennyson, Carlyle and Sir John Herschel. The... Read more... |
Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees, BBC One review - an arboreal delightThursday, 21 December 2017
“I am going to find out how much my trees live, breath, and even communicate. I am Judi Dench, and I have been an actor for 60 years – but I have had another passion ever since I was a little girl: I have adored trees. My six acres are a secret... Read more... |
Jaron Lanier: Dawn of the New Everything review - pioneer of virtual reality tells his storySunday, 17 December 2017
Jaron Lanier has quite a story to tell. From a teenage flute-playing goat-herd in New Mexico to an “intense dreamer”, and a maths student capable of arguing, about films for example, with “supremacist. Borgesian flair”, then onwards and upwards,... Read more... |
The Farthest: Voyager's Interstellar Journey, BBC Four review - awe-inspiring and life-affirming space odysseyFriday, 01 December 2017
Long before Barack Obama spoke about the audacity of hope, the Voyager mission left the Earth driven by something else: the audacity of curiosity. What do the outer planets look like? What are they comprised of? And what’s beyond that?Storyville:... Read more... |
