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[Exoplanet link:](https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/exoplanet/id327702034?mt=8) And if you want to see even more about the Sky – download [Pocket Universe.](http://pocketuniverse.info) – [AppStore link](https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/pocket-universe-virtual-sky/id306916838?mt=8) Related posts: How did the BBC miss Pocket Universe? iPad Guns and Games: it’s a dirty deal EA refuses to licence guns and war paraphernalia its action games this year
[Exoplanet link:](https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/exoplanet/id327702034?mt=8)
And if you want to see even more about the Sky – download [Pocket Universe.](http://pocketuniverse.info) – [AppStore link](https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/pocket-universe-virtual-sky/id306916838?mt=8)
Science is amazing. It is the first isolated planet of its kind ever to be discovered by scientists, after more than a decade of searching in a process described as “looking for a single needle in amongst thousands of haystacks.” Up to seven times the size of Jupiter, it is free-floating with no gravitational link … Continue reading “Homeless Planet Discovered”
It is the first isolated planet of its kind ever to be discovered by scientists, after more than a decade of searching in a process described as “looking for a single needle in amongst thousands of haystacks.”
Up to seven times the size of Jupiter, it is free-floating with no gravitational link and meets the specific criteria of mass, temperature and age to be designated as a “planet”.
Seems Trek was right. There are planets out there that don’t orbit stars. Isn’t the universe amazing?
My ten year old daughter has been entering the race for life in support of Cancer Research UK in commemoration of her granny who succumbed a few years ago. She takes it very seriously and would love some additional sponsorship from people who know me. It doesn’t have to be a lot; jthe gesture counts … Continue reading “Support the Race for Life #cancerResearch”
My ten year old daughter has been entering the race for life in support of Cancer Research UK in commemoration of her granny who succumbed a few years ago. She takes it very seriously and would love some additional sponsorship from people who know me. It doesn’t have to be a lot; jthe gesture counts and any amount is very much appreciated.
Cancer is one of the reasons I studied a degree in Genetics. The concept that a fault in the code of our own cells can cause such pain and death indicates how much we are just biological machines fulfilling our programming logic, for good or ill. We all carry the possibility for cancer within our cells, it just requires a combination of the right trigger, the wrong time and a heap of bad luck. The best we can hope for is rapid detection, rapid treatment and better luck.
At the time of writing, Meggan has raised £260 of her £1000 target.
I wrote my first business plan for a co-working space in about 2006 – in response to some encouragement from an ex-colleague who was in Investment Belfast. It helped crystallise some ideas I had with regards to not only co-working, but skills, inclusion, business incubation and innovation. Over the last two-and-a-bit years I’ve been included … Continue reading “#TIC, #KTN, #Science, #Technology, #Innovation”
I wrote my first business plan for a co-working space in about 2006 – in response to some encouragement from an ex-colleague who was in Investment Belfast. It helped crystallise some ideas I had with regards to not only co-working, but skills, inclusion, business incubation and innovation.
Over the last two-and-a-bit years I’ve been included on snippets of longer conversations regarding the ‘need’ for a Digital Hub in Belfast. It’s something that inspired us to create StartVI, among other things. I’ve been part of these attempts and also witnessed them being opposed by people who should be helping.
But while CoWorking spaces are generally places to “work” and by that I mean write, create spreadsheets, lay out books, edit images, create software and network online. They provide desks, light, heat, WiFi, coffee, armchairs, water coolers and toasters.
is there a way to have a coworking (or co-researching) facility for freelance scientists?
and this article continues:
A coworking space has three important components: the physical space, the technological infrastructure, and the people. A Science Hostel that accommodates people who need more than armchairs and wifi, would need to be topical – rooms designed as labs of a particular kind, common equipment that will be used by most people there, all the people being in roughly the same field who use roughly the same tools.
…
But in the modern world, there can be more of those. There will be vast differences in size, type and economics. Some will be built and funded by large, rich institutions. Others will be cooperative projects. Some will be free, but by invitation only. Others will be open, but charging for space and use of the facilities.
We don’t have the resources in Northern Ireland to create a vast Fraunhofer-style network of collaborative research institutes so we have to be clever. £200m will be spent on this network of elite technology centres and despite our low population, the strength of our two local universities will mean we can expect to get >£10m of this, which would build 2-3 such centres. I would be disappointed if they were just carbon copies of what had gone before or worse, they just extended the duration of stuff that wasn’t working particularly well in the first place.
One of these in Belfast, using the Technology and Innovation Centre model, could provide access to shared facilities and useful knowledge which would help make up for the small population we have in Northern Ireland. The initial candidate areas of energy & resource efficiency, transport systems, healthcare, ICT and electronics, and photonics & electrical systems all require a significant ICT resource, resource which could be shared and which could take advantage of ‘traditional’ co-working models – bringing in our local experts in software engineering, user interface design and content. Just as a co-working centre contained writers, designers, software engineers, journalists, teachers and life-coaches, so a co-research centre could contain biologists, chemists, physicists and other disciplines – harnessing relationships with the universities for particularly specialised equipment but only containing individuals dedicated to the future of scientific progress.
It’s only thorough these collaborations that create “some of the luck and coincidences that gave us huge leaps in science and technology.”
Who’s interested?
I’m very encouraged by a recent trend for science programming. The trend throughout is an agnostic view of the universe. Nothing said in the programmes denies the existence of the supernatural but at the same time they ask questions and reveal answers which directly infer that we are but microscopic motes in a macrocosm. We … Continue reading “Science”
I’m very encouraged by a recent trend for science programming. The trend throughout is an agnostic view of the universe. Nothing said in the programmes denies the existence of the supernatural but at the same time they ask questions and reveal answers which directly infer that we are but microscopic motes in a macrocosm. We are certainly not in the centre of the universe.
BBC
Channel 4
You can catch these programmes from these links (may be limited to UK only).
I am inspired. The story of how the Invisible College were formed, with the patronage of the king, into the Royal Society. The story of how the Penny Universities formed around coffee houses in London. The dual purpose of the Monument to the Great Fire as both memento and scientific instrument.
I know there are two humanist groups (Belfast Humanists and Humani) in Northern Ireland but I’m not interested in the Humanist agenda, per se, more in the investigation and promotion of science over superstition.
I hope I’m not alone in this.