John Bercow's Body Language

I was very interested watching John Bercow's acceptance speech as Parliament's Speaker-Elect. This is partly covered on the BBC website (linked in the title above).

He spent most of his time talking to the government benches, with just brief glances at the Tories. Public speakers typically look for friendly faces in their audience and clearly he saw little comfort from the Conservatives. Indeed, he was "dragged" to the Speaker's Seat from within Labour benches.

An odd start for a Tory MP.

Critical Thinking Part 2

In the last couple of decades (and possibly before that) we have been fortunate to have a number of people who have written well about science. Some have just skirted the edge of being difficult for the public to understand, such as Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time. Others are easy to read but might skirt controversy, such as Ben Goldacre's excellent Bad Science. (In my view, Ben gets away with using emotive language because behind the indignation is scrupulously researched information. If he calls you an idiot, chances are better than even that your age exceeds your IQ.)

Sense About Science is, in its own words, a charitable trust to promote good science and evidence for the public. If you want to know about detox, climate change, radiation, MMR or a host of other subjects, you will find a sensible description of the topic on their web site, which is why it appears in my Links on the right.

But there is danger here.

The Simon Singh and BCA controversy has received wide coverage and I don't plan to cover this ground again here. If you're not familiar with it, click on the link. In essence, he criticised the British Chiropractic Association and they sued.

Sense About Science has begun a campaign in support of Dr Singh.
I've read the preamble and I broadly support it and so I have signed. However, I feel there is a need for caution. While science must be open for rigorous debate if it is to advance, I am concerned that the approach taken by some may invite legal retribution. Ben Goldacre is breezy in style but thorough. He may spawn imitators. He probably already has. While Ben can pull this off, others may go beyond what is acceptable, either morally or legally. I don't believe Simon Singh did this, but it would be a great pity if others did, resulting in a series of court cases resulted which might stifle scientific debate.

Critical Thinking Part 1

I was fortunate to have several excellent lecturers at university. Best of these was Doctor Pat Terry, now a Professor, who taught me Applied Maths for two years. He's the extremely young looking doctor in my graduation photo opposite.

Applied Maths was a tough subject. Pat Terry made it entertaining. For example, when discussing vectors, he told us about a drunk student whose wobbly progress home one evening followed a particular formula. Did the student make it home unscathed, we were asked to calculate.

Equally important, Pat Terry taught us how to think critically. We needed to make sure we understood the question being discussed, how to break it down into sub problems and then make sure these fitted together. We shouldn't take things at face value but rather ask "Is that true?", "What does it mean?" and "How can we prove or disprove it?"

I am not sure Pat taught this deliberately. It was the way he thought and, being a great teacher, he made sure he passed on good techniques. It's made an enormous difference to my life: I'm sure the same is true of thousands of others he taught.

Thirty years later I thought I'd take the opportunity to say "Thank you, Prof."