We have two female common pheasants in our garden at the moment. I can tell they are female as they are brown and, for such large birds in this context, surprisingly inconspicuous. The male pheasant is larger and more conspicuous, and plays no part in the raising of the young. I read The Selfish Gene… Continue reading ‘Good Decoys’ Sexual dimorphism and differential predation
Category: Science
Posts about matters scientific
Good Economics for Hard Times
“Good Economics for Hard Times: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty” is an economics book aimed at the general reader by two MIT professors of economics who specialise in the economics of poverty, social and political equality, migration and globalization. Economics is important to be as one of the mechanisms to… Continue reading Good Economics for Hard Times
Mr Acid Rain and our Interconnected World
My father, Roger Lines, was a research forester, working for the Forestry Commission. When, in the early 1970’s, I did my Statistics O-Grade I was fortunate to be able to help with some real research at the, then fairly newly established, Forestry Commission Northern Research Station. I was chopping young Sitka Spruce trees, grown under… Continue reading Mr Acid Rain and our Interconnected World
How do we decide ?
This is very much a work in progress, which I intend to refine, but published in this incomplete form to link other posts into a wider context. Choices can be tricky – important ones always are, and for each choice we (as individuals, groups, societies and humanity as whole) make there will be an alternative… Continue reading How do we decide ?
The reasoned feedback loop
The reasoned feedback loop is central to human progress. Feedback loops are everywhere, but the key element introduced by people is the Reason step. It is core to the way that science works, and engineering, and good (I wish I could think of a better word here), legal, moral and political systems. In such loops… Continue reading The reasoned feedback loop
Is Covid-19 a Catastrophe ?
Coronavirus is on everyone’s mind at present, including mine at about half past 5 this morning, when my mobile phone made an alert sound, but I could not find any message. There was a quick flash of what looked like the NHS Covid-19 app, which I have recently installed. In the way that the brain… Continue reading Is Covid-19 a Catastrophe ?
Where is everybody – The Fermi Paradox, Self replicating spacecraft and computer system reliability
In 1950 the physicist Enrico Fermi asked the question “Where is everybody ?“, by which he meant – given the size of the universe, the diversity of life on earth, occupying every ecological niche, and the fact that the Solar System is a fairly average star system; why do we not see signs of extra… Continue reading Where is everybody – The Fermi Paradox, Self replicating spacecraft and computer system reliability