Fake news past and present
Warren Nunn The fake news catch-cry has become part of everyday language mainly because of America’s 45th President Donald Trump. Newspaper reporting down the years has included much serious, accurate recording of history; and some that has been downright sloppy and...
What’s going on under the ice?
Warren Nunn Some really interesting data has emerged that shows there are ‘upside down’ canyons below the Antarctic ice. That should slow you down to picture what that looks like. Driven by currents created as the earth rotates, water from below is eating away at the...
Dogmatic science
Dogmatism is real. We can all have it. Back more than a century ago, when civil debate graced our newspapers, it was refreshing to read reasoned essays such as that that follows. Titled "The dogmatism of science" it appeared in the Spectator of 17 December 1898, pp....
The wisdom of William Lewin
Be careful not to label others Warren Nunn Appearances can be deceptive; that’s not in doubt. Assuming someone’s intelligence by their level of education or station in life is also something to be very careful about. All people have worth and intelligence. Some people...
Adam Sedgwick v Charles Darwin
A considered and needed response Warren Nunn Charles Darwin first learnt about geology from Adam Sedgwick, professor of geology at the University of Cambridge. But it was Sedgwick who first expressed grave misgivings about Darwin’s Origin of Species saying he read it...
Racetrack photo-finish operations
At the winning post ©Warren Nunn For several years from the early 1980s, I worked on a casual basis as a photo-finish operator on various racecourses in Central Queensland and South-East Queensland. Nowadays digital technology means there is a quick and efficient...
This is our world
What to make of it? © Warren Nunn It is 2017 and there a number of matters consuming the world at this point in time arguably the worst of which is the dreadful and ongoing carnage in the Middle East and elsewhere in which individuals or groups use violence to...
Looking beyond the obvious
Henry Peter Brougham Warren Nunn Astute readers will sometimes complain that something has been taken out of context, particularly—but not exclusively—in newspapers. It can be the result of a misunderstanding or it can be done to mislead people. Henry Peter Brougham...
Funny business, that storytelling
Shape shifters Scientific storytelling is sometimes so obvious that it could even be laugh-out-loud funny if it weren’t so serious. An article <Shape shifters, The Economist, p. 70, 9 May 2015> which claimed the ancient ancestors of animal and plant cells had...