Last updated 03/09/2006
2 Sep 2006 A minor update just to remove some of the scripts I had been linking to that suddenly had started popping up nasty advertising on the page. Sorry about that everyone. Also, just to satisfy Ian: I still only have one head, and it still has hair on it.
24 Oct 2005 By popular (?) demand here's a quick update on what I'm doing now: I'm currently working for a city startup (how long can one justify calling it a startup?) called Columba Systems. I'm working with Chris and the office is just accross the road from Tammay and Richard.
Some time ago now, I did a Ph.D. with the Hot-Star Group at University College London. My main research interest is in the field of photospheric abundances in O stars, but my work to date has also included a study of rotational velocities of O and B stars. A CD version of my thesis is available upon request.
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New Scientist - Online News
Biobank promises to pinpoint the cause of disease
The launch of the UK Biobank, the world's largest medical database, will reveal the effects of genes and environment on health


Friday Illusion: Ghostly spiral appears from nowhere
Watch a new unexplained illusion that produces a dramatic moving after-image


Feedback: Feedback can be dangerous
Why smokers need quantum superpowers, the not-so-smart state, LEO just doesn't add up, and more (full text available to subscribers)


How large is warming effect of North Sea gas leak?
The global warming impact of a major offshore gas leak could be equivalent to the emissions associated with 3 per cent of the UK's electricity demand


How to turn old plastic bags into racing cars
Chemists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have discovered how to turn the plastic into useful carbon fibres


Lightning directed by laser beams
For the first time, lasers have triggered and diverted lightning bolts


Get tantric at meal times to enjoy what you eat
A professional food taster aims to use science to show how to savour flavour PLUS: how computing became ubiquitous and the search for our human origins


A tale of two classics: biology vs economics
What happens when you dissect the work of one of the most influential economists using the scalpel of evolutionary theory, asks David Sloan Wilson (full text available to subscribers)


Earth has little to fear from a black hole attack
Small black holes that may be roaming space undetected would leave Earth unscathed if they hit us


Apollo 11 rocket engines may be dredged from the sea
Ahead of the centenary of the Titanic's sinking, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announces the discovery of other historic relics at the bottom of the ocean


Pesticides cause bees to lose their bearings
A group of widely used pesticides subtly affect the insects' behaviour, and may be partly to blame for their falling populations


Human brain organised like a 3D 'New York City' grid
If you straighten out its folds, the brain seems to be a three-dimensional grid of nerve fibres


Life-extending drug without the negative side effects
Teasing apart the diabetes-causing and life-extending properties of a drug gives rise to a potential "elixir of life"


Age of oldest rocks off by millions of years
The solar system's natural timekeepers have been caught misbehaving, spelling trouble for how we chart its history and date its material


Today on New Scientist: 29 March 2012
All today's stories on newscientist.com, including: glowing fountains on icy Saturn moon and modified bacteria could get electricity from sewage


Full face transplant promises less risk of rejection
Tongue, jaw and teeth were part of a full graft from scalp to collar bone, including bone-marrow that could help the tissues get established


Glowing fountains on icy Saturn moon
Las Vegas has nothing on Enceladus – a newly released image from the Cassini probe reveals fountains of ice and steam shooting high into space


Superhot gas spirals from massive tornado on the sun
Watch a recent tornado on the sun as it spews unusually hot gas for several hours


Blind man 'drives' Google's autonomous car
Steve Mahan, who is 95 per cent blind, demonstrates the potential future for self-driving cars - by driving to a Taco Bell restaurant


US scepticism ? it's been a long time coming
Distrust in science among US conservatives is assumed to be a recent political gambit ? the reality is it's been building for decades


New space radars track small but deadly space junk
Space Fence will locate and identify the 200,000 pieces of junk too small to be seen by current radar systems, but still posing a threat to spacecraft


Modified bacteria could get electricity from sewage
Using genetically engineered bacteria to capture energy stored in waste water could make treatment cheap and energy-efficient


Clocking galaxy clusters to gauge dark energy
Combining the afterglow of the big bang with a map of galaxy clusters reveals how the clusters move, which could provide a new way to measure dark energy


Doomsday drivel: promoting nuclear paranoia
The Doomsday Machine oversimplifies complex energy issues and combines nuclear scaremongering with climate change denialism


Sand Flea robot leaps tall buildings in a single bound
The latest gadget from robotics company Boston Dynamics performs mad hops


Kaj Wik Siebert © 1996-2013