Category Archives: Science

Short story: Wei Lai and Mazu

Posted on 26 August 2017 by Spuggy

The moment of Wei Lai’s conception was streamed live in schools across China. As the microscopic glass needle punctured the egg, Commander Xue answered carefully rehearsed questions from pupils back on Earth. No, the baby would not be going on … Continue reading →

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Why we need more continents

Posted on 8 August 2017 by Spuggy

In any group of geography nerds, one of the biggest peeves will be “Europe’s not a continent”. From this perspective, Europe is just a peninsula of Asia, and the listing of Europe in the seven traditional continents (Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, … Continue reading →

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Short story: Messier

Posted on 9 July 2017 by Spuggy

A short story, loosely inspired by Tabby’s Star. Fun fact: when Messier was first categorising galaxies, he actually hated them. He was a comet hunter, and galaxies really annoyed him because they looked like comets (at least with the small telescopes … Continue reading →

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Time Crystals

Posted on 22 March 2017 by Spuggy

A short story, based on a cool bit of recent news.

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Can the Moon be used as a weapon?

Posted on 28 February 2017 by Spuggy

Twitter likes to have its daily figures of mockery, and today that role fell to Brianna Wu – game developer, women’s rights activist and prospective politician. In response to Space X’s announcement that it was aiming to send people to … Continue reading →

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How easy would it be to cover up alien life?

Posted on 23 February 2017 by Spuggy

It wasn’t aliens, despite what The Telegraph claimed, but it was cool. TRAPPIST-1 has a whole clutch of planets orbiting, including several rocky Earth sized planets in its habitable zone. “Well,” the conspiracy theorists are already saying, “of course they wouldn’t … Continue reading →

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How would scientists announce the discovery of aliens?

Posted on 21 February 2017 by Spuggy

On Monday 20th January, Nasa announced a sudden press conference on a “discovery beyond our solar system“. Admittedly, Nasa has become a bit notorious for calling press conferences at the drop of a space helmet, but this one has people quite excited. … Continue reading →

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Google Search Q&A 6

Posted on 8 November 2015 by Spuggy

It’s been a long time since we did this, and the boring reason why is that Google now encrypts its search engine referrals (officially for privacy reasons, but it will still show you search terms for paid search adverts…) But … Continue reading →

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What would really happen if the Earth lost oxygen for five seconds?

Posted on 15 June 2013 by Spuggy

I’ve seen this Buzzfeed video floating around a bit on the internet (a more readable picture version is here). Purportedly, it explains what would happen if the Earth lost oxygen for five seconds. But… well, perhaps you shouldn’t use Buzzfeed … Continue reading →

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