Festival time

I feel honoured and delighted to have been asked to contribute to two of the Edinburgh Festivals this year. The programme for the International Science Festival was published today, and features (amongst many others) Marcus du Sautoy, Marcus Chown, Kirsty Wark, Colin Blakemore, Steve Jones and Heinz Wolff. Richard Jones (who blogs here) and I have been scheduled in the Cutting Edge subgroup of the Big Ideas event. The Festival runs from April 2-15, and it promises to be a lot of fun (as well as informative, of course!)

I'll also be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival which takes place between August 11-27. Last year's event (featuring three Nobel Laureates) attracted over 220,000 visitors, and it's now the "world's largest celebration of the written word". The programme for this event will be published on June 14.

Protect and survive

Those of us old enough to remember Protect and Survive (or its US equivalent, Duck and Cover) will appreciate the humour of Safe Now, which provides alternative interpretations of public information graphics.



The middle of a terrorist attack is not an appropriate time to catch up on your reading or paperwork.

"Dr" Gillian McKeith

Today's Guardian contains a wonderfully detailed demolition of "Dr" Gillian McKeith, Channel 4's very own "clinical nutritionist". Many people have accused her of quackery and charlatanism in the past, often resulting in threats of legal action (as opposed to a reasoned scientific response).

Her claims to hold a Ph.D. certainly seem quite laughable.

Paperback edition

Just a short note that the paperback edition of Genesis Machines is now available for pre-ordering on Amazon. It's out on June 14.

I spent the end of last week at a BBSRC workshop on synthetic biology, and will post a report later this week.