Science Friday #6: Lent, Spring, and Renewal

The day before yesterday, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of the Lent season. Like many other important days in the Christian calendar, its significance is best understood in the context of the seasonal changes of Europe. Just as Christmas falls shortly after the shortest day of the southern solstice (winter solstice in the north), and [...]

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Science Friday #5: Archaeology and Biblical “Truth”

The Lent season is almost upon us.  For us Christians, it is a call for introspection — we need to question what we believe in, as well as how we believe — how does being a Christian make me a better person, you might ask. The bible enjoins us to be the salt of the [...]

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Science Friday #4: Challenger and our place in the universe

Yesterday marked the 24th anniversary of the tragic Challenger disaster, bringing an end to starry-eyed dreams of cheap access to space. It is not the first, nor the last, tragedy in the history of the world’s several space programs, and we, rightly, salute the elite cadre who goes into space, fully aware of the risks [...]

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Science Friday #3: Pierre Gassendi, priest, philosopher and scientist

Our third instalment of Science Friday celebrates the birthday of Pierre Gassendi, born on this day, 418 years ago, in Champtercier, near Digne, in France. Gassendi, a Doctor of Theology, made significant contributions to the fields of both philosophy and science. For more details on his life, I recommend his Wikipedia entry, and for his [...]

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Science Friday #2: Elevators, Skyscrapers and the Environment

149 years ago to this day, US patent #31128 was issued to Elisha Otis for “improvement in hoisting apparatus”, i.e. the steam-powered safety elevator. The elevator is to go on to revolutionize city planning: after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the city’s downtown was rebuilt in a more systematic way that better made use [...]

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Science Friday #1: Stephen Hawking and modern cosmology

Today’s our very first Science Friday column, warmly dedicated to the British theoretical physicist, cosmologist and ALS sufferer Stephen William Hawking, who celebrates his 68th birthday this very day. Professor Hawking, a Fellow of Cambridge’s Gonville and Caius College, was until recently the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. Like his US counterpart, the late Carl Sagan, [...]

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