Author, writer & broadcaster. "The Danielle Steel of science" - Tom Whipple. Books include Bright Earth, Critical Mass, The Modern Myths, How Life Works.
2 subscribed
Mar 11 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I was asked this question today: As a materialist, why am I sceptical that, if a simulation of the human body were possible down to the atomic scale, it would not show genuine consciousness? Articulating the answer is not easy. (1/n)
It's tempting to offer the answer that simulating black holes does not produce a singularity, and simulating water does not make the circuits wet. But I'm not sure that quite works here, where we might assume that the property in question (consciousness) is not inherently...
Feb 5 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
I figured it might not be a bad idea to post a little thread on what my book How Life Works does and doesn't do... how-life-works.philipball.co.uk
Several reviews have focused (approvingly!) on the takedown of gene-centric narratives of life. That is absolutely a part of the book, but only a part (there's only one chapter directly about genes). Some might say: "But biologists don't think that way any more!"
Aug 24, 2023 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Atoms are not mostly empty space. I'd agree with pretty much everything here - and I think its main message could be retained even if we acknowledge the need for simplifications in early learning about the atom. However!!... aeon.co/essays/why-the…
...it remains the case that nucleons can be considered to have a well defined and finite size, and electrons can be considered point-like particles. So how do we help school kids navigate that in a pre-quantum syllabus? I'm not sure there are easy answers...
Jun 30, 2023 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
This is a great thread by Jim on current positions on the interpretation of quantum mechanics. I even agree with most of it! Inevitably, I'll add some comments... (1/n)
Of course, the choices of interpretation are not limited to these four. There's the coherent histories view, the relational view, QBism, and more. It can admittedly be hard sometimes to figure out how they're distinguished. But we're not spoilt for choice! (2/n)
Jun 24, 2023 • 14 tweets • 2 min read
A useful look at what some of the leading figures in AI are thinking about the dangers.
However...
newstatesman.com/long-reads/202…
I'm quite taken aback at some of the simplistic comments Hinton makes. He seems to feel that the only thing separating deep-learning AI from the human mind is a matter of scale. I can't fathom this conviction that somehow all intelligence must be heading towards ours.
Jun 3, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I'm naturally inclined to agree with this leader, but I do think it needs a bit of nuancing. The initial govt response was shambolic and slow, but *was* guided by the "herd immunity" thinking of some chief scientists - which was flawed. So the inquiry... theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
... also needs to ask how that position came about. I don't want to exonerate the abysmal way Johnson handled it, but at first it wasn't just govt ignoring "the science". Later it was a different story, for sure. bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…
May 29, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Interesting to look back now at the UK govt's "Living with Covid" document, last updated May 22. I have questions: 1. Is it being audited now to see how well the plans are being implemented? If so, by whom? ... gov.uk/government/pub…2. At a glance, I don't see any mention of long Covid; certainly it does not leap out as the big deal it now is. What are the plans here? 3. What are the future plans for vaccinations? Who gets them, and when?
May 28, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Excellent as ever from @gabyhinsliff. It is both (probably) unavoidable and outrageous that the Covid inquiry will not announce its findings before 2027 at the earliest. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
From a purely personal point of view, I'd be interested to compare the conclusions of the inquiry against the occasional complaint of a few scientists at the time that science communicators like me were being too harsh on the government.
May 25, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
End of an era today at @Nature with the retirement of Phil Campbell as Editor-in-Chief. Nature has been transformed utterly under his leadership, and has now been ably managed for some years with Magdalena Skipper at the helm. Great to see so many old friends at the party.
I've lost count of the number of times people have been convinced that I'm Phil C and that they met me at some place or another years back. Or maybe I just have a terrible memory.
May 12, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
My Medawar-Bernal-Wilkins Medal Lecture at the Royal Society last night is now online.
Somewhat guiltily, one of the high points for me was when I was chatting beforehand to Maria Fitzgerald in the Member's Room. Maria explained that she was often asked to do such things as an FRS, because she had a literary background. "My mother was an author", she said...
Apr 26, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This is an interesting perspective from Serge Galam on the early days of importing ideas from statistical physics into social sciences in the late 1970s and 1980s. He notes "the harsh hostility deployed by physicists... frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…
...against any deviation from the study of inert matter." When he prepared his first paper proposing the term "sociophysics", "our typed manuscript has been then confiscated by the chairman of the physics department." Wow.
However...
Apr 25, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
I can't recommend strongly enough that you read @matthewcobb and @nccomfort's analysis in @Nature of Rosalind Franklin's real contributions to solving the structure of DNA. It raises many issues... nature.com/articles/d4158…
First, kudos to Matthew that even before this new archival research he had made it very clear in his book Life's Greatest Secret that the story was different from popular accounts of the fetishized Photograph 51. I drew on that work in this review. nature.com/articles/52545…
Apr 24, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I only just learnt that Michael Fisher died in 2021. He was one of the most formidable physicists of the 20th century - yes that's right, even if you haven't heard of him. aps.org/publications/a…
He was in the audience when I gave my first public talk as a PhD student c.1985. He had a hardball reputation and I was primed to be terrified, but I don't recall any sticky moments.
Apr 21, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
There are a few things thast had to be dropped from this piece for length reasons, which I'll append here... (1/n)
First, I rather liked Crick's original, more linear sketch of the CD in his 1956 note "Ideas on protein synthesis".
Mar 14, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
A good summary of the issues (though some might say it does not go far enough). I wrote to Tim Davie in 2021 expressing concern that traditional and seemingly reasonable notions of impartiality can't be enough in the age of political "strategic lying", and that (1/n)
...some rethinking is needed. Tim, to his credit, responded, though my concerns were not assuaged (and perhaps now you can see why). The whole notion of "impartiality" is more complicated than just using the word as a mantra. The BBC's past handling of climate change shows that..
Mar 2, 2023 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
On Inside Science in 15 mins on Radio 4 I'll talk about what Matt Hancock's pandemic WhatsApp leak means for the way scientific policy advice works in the UK. bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…
OK, it's necessarily brief. But there's a lot to unpick there. As far as the care-homes issue goes, my view was this: 1. If Hancock had disregarded Wihtty's advice on testing, as the Telegraph implied (and in particular if that was connected to his desire to hit his...
Feb 28, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Christ. There are bigger implications here of course, but it surely means there are deep flaws in a system that has made Whitty compelled to keep quiet about this all that time.
This news, though expected, gutted me this morning. Tom was a superb soft-matter physicist, but very much more than that. He was a passionate advocate for interdisciplinarity, and wrote profoundly and sensitively on the interactions of science & music, poetry and religion...
A couple of years back I offered to sell autographed copies of my books to clear my unmanageable stock of boxes. I thought I'd shift a few - but the task was gargantuan. Well, I have just pulled out more, and I haven't learnt my lesson - so the offer is reopened. List follows.
Basically I'll send you (signed) copies of what I have, for £10 hardback/£5 paperback, plus postage & packing. Here's what I have: first, plenty of copies of Curiosity, mostly paperback US & UK.
Feb 21, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
My daughter is writing her EPQ on the ethics of sexbots, which is how come I needed to check out with her the RealDoll site's Harmony and Solana. Oh my freaking lord.
Deep, deep in the Uncanny Valley. And apparently they come with a hook to hang them on. I try not to judge, but I struggle to imagine the kind of person who'd even feel safe sharing a house with these.
Feb 12, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
This is just plain weird. Someone has used ChatGPT to create a "story by Philip Ball" of how Madonna plans to use moon dust to cool the Earth and solve global warming: linkedin.com/pulse/peculiar…
What makes it a bit amusing is that Madonna did once try to enlist my services to publicize a plan to solve the problems of nuclear waste by treating water with some electromagnetic process so that it "neutralized radioactivity"...
2 subscribed
