Subscribe

Blog

Where is the weather most variable?

Where is the weather most variable?

My PhD is about the predictability of the weather. To me, predictability means the rate of ensemble spread. Ensemble spread is how quickly computer simulations starting with similar weather disagree with each other. You could also think about it as how predictable a robot would find the weather. But what

Politics in the Milky Way

Politics in the Milky Way

What's your perfect profession? If you could pick out of every job that has existed or will exist, what would you do? I know my answer. I would be an archaeologist. That may seem odd since the profession already exists and I am in an apprenticeship to become

John Conway's Game of Life

John Conway's Game of Life

Conway's game of life was born in 1970. It is hard not to come across it at one point or another. The idea is that simple rules result in unpredictable and often beautiful chaos with emergent order. You start with a grid of cells, some of which are

Metalic rainbows all around us

Metalic rainbows all around us

Have you ever looked closely at metal cutlery after sticking it into hot food? An oil slick on the road? The strange sheen on a beetle? These colours, sometimes called oil slick or neochrome, have a common origin. I wondered where the colour came from and found a couple cool

Far off cannons are heard but closer ones are silent

Far off cannons are heard but closer ones are silent

Cannons are loud. Before an interesting discussion with Tom Mulder, a DPhil student who studies how animals detect vibrations, I imagined that the further from a cannon you were the quieter it would be. This is not true.