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Orbital wobbles, carbon dioxide and dust all seem to contribute An expanded version of my recent Times column on ice ages: Record cold in America has brought temperatures as low as minus 44C in North Dakota, frozen sharks in Massachusetts and iguanas falling from trees in Florida. Al Gore blames global warming, citing one scientist to […]

History shows that technology augments more than displaces My Times column on AI and jobs:   In the early 1960s, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there was a disagreement about what computers would achieve. One faction, led by John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky, championed “artificial intelligence”, believing that computers would gradually replace human beings. […]

Recent findings about intelligence make designer babies less likely My Spectator article in the Christmas edition: Christmas Day marks the birthday of one of the most gifted human beings ever born. His brilliance was of a supernoval intensity, but he was, by all accounts, very far from pleasant company. I refer to Isaac Newton. Would […]

The most successful quit-smoking aid is banned from advertising My Times column on Britain’s successful use of electronic cigarettes (vaping) to cut smoking rates:   Imagine if Britain led the world in a new electronic industry, both in production and consumption, if independent British manufacturers had a worldwide reputation for innovation and quality, were based […]

The BBC’s Blue Planet II is superb, but got a few things wrong My Times column on the BBC’s Blue Planet II:   Nothing that Hollywood sci-fi screenwriters dream up for outer space begins to rival the beauty and ingenuity of life under water right here. Blue Planet II captured behaviour that was new to science as […]

Block chains work – and could be transformational My recent (4 December 2017) Times column on bitcoin, block chain and distributed ledgers:   The price of a Bitcoin has risen tenfold in ten months. Yet whether and when the bubble will burst is beside the point, which is that Bitcoin works. What I mean by […]

The letter Theresa May should send with the cheque… My Times column on Britain’s “financial settlement” with the European Union: Theresa May reportedly plans to offer about £40 billion of our money in order to bring the European Union to the table to discuss whether it wishes to trade freely with Britain after we leave […]

Biotech is urgently needed, economically and environmentally, in Africa My Times column on the urgent need for biotechnology in African agriculture: An even more dangerous foe than Robert Mugabe is stalking Africa. Early last year, a moth caterpillar called the fall armyworm, a native of the Americas, turned up in Nigeria. It has quickly spread […]

Local action improves the environment, not more officials My Times column on environmental policy:   Michael Gove, the environment secretary, is right to promise higher, not lower, environmental standards once we leave the European Union. Britain has always been a pioneer of environmental policy, and indeed many of our protections pre-date our joining the EU. […]

A lawsuit reveals a bitter split over renewable energy My Reaction article on the disputes within the green movement:   You can always tell when there is a United Nations Climate Conference of the Parties (COP) coming up, because there are any number of carefully timed press releases about how hot it has been or […]