Geneva is a city of many faces. Located in the far-western corner of Switzerland, at the tip of its namesake lake, it is steeped in history, surrounded by mountains, and host to the world’s largest particle physics experiments[…]
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The Origin of Life: A Selfish Act or a Cooperative Effort?
Around 1620 the Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, often considered the father of pneumatic chemistry (the chemistry of gases), wrote the following: “If you press a piece of underwear soiled with sweat together with some wheat in an[…]
Read moreAn Unconventional Place for Unconventional Science
Earlier this year, the inaugural workshop of the EES Project was held at the Konrad Lorenz Institute (KLI) in Austria. The KLI is a private and independent research institute with a focus on the development and evolution of biological and[…]
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Citizen Science: The Statistics of Language
Our ability to learn, use, and process language is something that sets us apart from other animals. Language is used for effective communication, but also allows us to express our creativity through literature, poetry, and song. However, our[…]
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Cause and Process in Evolution
“Most scientific explanations are causal. This is also the case in evolutionary biology, where the primary goals are to explain the diversity of life and the adaptive fit between organisms and their surroundings. Yet, the nature of causation[…]
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Marvellous Mallorca: Hiking the Ruta de Pedra en Sec
I just spent two weeks in Mallorca (Spain), with as main goal hiking the Ruta de Pedra en Sec (GR221), a long-distance trail that crosses the entire Serra de Tramuntana, Mallorca’s beautiful mountain range. Eight days on the[…]
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Citizen Science: Facts or Fake News?
In this day and age of the internet, where anyone can post anything, it is often difficult to know what is true and what is not. One person claims one thing, while another states the exact opposite. Who[…]
Read moreCan Computers Help Us Conserve Biodiversity?
We’ve heard it all too many times: animal and plant species are currently going extinct at a rate that is higher than ever before. Climate change, over-pollution, and urban and agricultural encroachment all contribute to the rapid decline[…]
Read moreA Perfect View from Mount Le Grammont
Le Grammont is a mountain in the Chablais Alps in Western Switzerland situated at the south-east end of Lake Geneva, close to the Swiss-French border where the Rhône River flows into the lake. With a height of 2,172[…]
Read moreVienna by Night
Last night I took advantage of a temporary break in the extreme cold weather we’re experiencing this month, and went for a walk along the Ringstrasse in Vienna to take some shots of the various beautiful buildings located[…]
Read moreUpdate on Earth Activity Data
In a post just over a year ago, I presented data on earth activity (in particular earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tropical storms). Given all the buzz on the internet about an increased earth activity over the past several[…]
Read moreCastles, Canyons, and Caves
The historic city of Graz, in south-eastern Austria, was designated a UNESCO world cultural heritage site in 1999 for having “the best preserved city center of Central Europe”. It combines renaissance, gothic, baroque, and also modern architecture, and[…]
Read moreSpontaneous Spirals
Spirals are common in nature. We’ve all admired the beautiful spirals that occur on sea shells, we can find spirals in plants, and even in the arms of galaxies or weather patterns. There are also situations in which[…]
Read moreGrande Dixence: The Tallest Gravity Dam in the World
With a height of 285m, the Barrage de la Grande Dixence in Switzerland is the tallest gravity dam in the world. Its lake, Lac des Dix, can hold up to 400 billion litres of water. And not only[…]
Read moreThe Mathematics of Kindness
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is one of the most profound scientific theories to have ever been developed. However, there were several questions about evolution that Darwin himself could not answer. Not that he wasn’t[…]
Read moreEvolution: It’s As Real As Gravity
Evolution is still all too often (but wrongly) downplayed as “just a theory” in public discussions. This is partly due to an unfortunate misunderstanding of what a theory means in science, as opposed to its common language meaning.[…]
Read moreSummer Solstice Full Moon
Last night a rare event happened: the summer solstice and a full moon at the same time. So I went up Kahlenberg, a hill above the city of Vienna, to have a good view of this special full[…]
Read moreAutocatalytic Sets Arising
I’ve made a short movie showing autocatalytic sets arising in a dynamical simulation of a simple polymer model. It shows how autocatalytic subsets appear, one after another, and then grow in concentration. This provides a nice visual and[…]
Read morePreserving Species in the Face of Climate Change
A key result of last year’s UN climate change conference in Paris is that we now have a new international deal to curb climate change. However, it seems primarily focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global[…]
Read moreHow a Game of Billiards Solved a Queueing Problem
“Please hold the line, your call is important to us.” It’s a sentence we’re all frustratingly familiar with. Just as familiar as we are with standing in line at the supermarket or post office, with the other queues[…]
Read moreLife: It’s Chemistry!
What is life? This question is still much debated in science. After the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953, and the more recent advances in DNA sequencing technology, living organisms have become[…]
Read moreSunset in Lausanne
An absolutely fantastic sunset today, watched from the attic at home. Click any pic for a full-size view…
Read moreA Recent Increase in Earth Activity? The Data Provides Little Support.
The internet is buzzing with claims that there has been a significant recent increase in seismic, volcanic, and atmospheric activity on our planet, and there seems to be a specific emphasis on the years 2012 and beyond. Suggested[…]
Read moreSunset in Santiago
I’m in Santiago, Chile, for two weeks to provide some computing support for a colleague. Unfortunately this city is often covered in a blanket of smog (especially during the summer). As a consequence the Andes mountains, which are[…]
Read moreWatching the Perseid Meteor Shower
On the night of 12-13 August, I took some friends up to the top of a small mountain to watch the annual Perseid meteor shower. This year was predicted to be particularly good, largely due to the peak[…]
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