Archives by date

Blogs A warm welcome to Paige Brown who has started a new blog, From the Lab Bench, on Nature Network this week. Paige is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at Washington University and her blog intends to help bridge the gap between scientists and the public. Her first post, Science in Film considers the storyline of Gattaca, comparing its science-inspired script to the realities of today’s scientific capabilities: Gattaca, which aired in theatres in 1997, portrays a future where genetic profiling is rampant, and has replaced all other forms of personal identification. Screening of film characters’ genetic identity are  … Read more

Blogs In the aftermath of one of the most devastating earthquakes in Japan’s tremor-filled history and the resulting tsunami which propagated across the Pacific Ocean, we have all been keeping a close eye on unfolding events. Amid mounting fears of a catastrophe after a nuclear plant in Fukushima was damaged by the earthquake, Nicolas Werneck has been explaining to us how a nuclear plant functions and what happens when there are problems. Currently two of Fukushima’s six reactors’ outer housings have exploded and ensuing problems have caused concerns that this will turn into a nuclear incident, similar to the Chernobyl  … Read more

Blogs This week, in the second post from our mini-series on Science on the Screen, we interviewed adrenaline-fuelled Greg Foot, a television science presenter. One of the toughest obstacles faced when attempting to explain science for the screen, is how to present it clearly and concisely in new and adventurous ways. In his interview, Greg gives budding presenters some top tips on how to overcome difficulties, finding fresh and exciting ways to explain science: Secrets Of The Universe was a great playground to try out this stunt science approach to explaining big principles. I was really fortunate to have an  … Read more