Kester Brewin

I’m not one for ‘natural order’ arguments, but part of me is drawn that way over the news that the ‘father figure’ clause currently in British IVF legislation is potentially going to be dropped. A government joint committee report “took issue with the proposal to remove the current requirement for IVF clinics to take into [...]

This month’s Prospect carries an excellent short essay outlining some arguments against Hitchens, Dawkins et al: ‘the evangelical atheists, shouting from their pulpits’. The author, Roger Scruton, is surprised by ‘the extent to which religion is caricatured by its current opponents, who see it as nothing more than a system of unfounded beliefs about the [...]

Last night I went with my good friend and doctor of film Gareth Higgins to see Werner Herzog’s latest film ‘The Wild Blue Yonder’. It’s a deeply comic, deeply environmental parable about space travel, aliens, shopping malls, complex math and hyperspace. And quite wonderful for it. Speaking to Gareth afterwards, I mentioned that the path of the [...]

After about 6 weeks of solid sunshine, it’s finally started raining this week. We needed it. Ironically, the downpours seemed to have caught the water supplies off-guard, and we had 3 water mains burst around our street, closing schools and leaving us without any. The allotment certainly needed the water. I was down there the [...]

‘In Our Time‘ – the BBC’s flagship science, mathematics and arts discussion programme – was on symmetry this week. It was, as ever, a fascinating mix of physics, philosophy and history, full of interesting moments, but one comment that jumped out at me was part of a section on symmetry in quantum / particle physics: [...]

Last Sunday saw the start of a 3 part documentary series called ‘The Trap‘. It is by Adam Curtis, the guy who brought us the award-winning ‘The Power of Nightmares – The Rise of the Politics of Fear.’ The Trap is very much in the same style – wonderful archive footage and superbly scripted voiceover. [...]

A unique chance to catch Hirst’s ‘New Religion’ works for free, and in the amazing setting of the church of All Hallows on the Wall. “There are four important things in life: religion, love, art and science. People tend to think of religion and science as two very separate things, one cold and clinical, the [...]

I’ve always gawped in wonder at the bit in Acts 8 where "the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus". The only teleportation reference in the Bible? Anyway, seems like they’ve finally worked out how [...]

The Norwegian government today released the final plans today for the ‘doomsday vault’ that will eventually hold seeds from all known varieties of crops in safe storage in case of ‘nuclear war, asteroid strike or environmental catastrophe’. They’re building it on a remote island near the North Pole. In the event of a burn up [...]

Sleep has always fascinated me. Something about absence making the heart grow fonder, perhaps. Via Wired today there’s a great article about science’s renewed interest in sleep: why do we do it? Fish die quicker without sleep than food… It is essential to all mammals. One interesting perspective it raises: the more sensible question is [...]