What Does it Mean to be Truly Good?
Reflections on reading Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory. Does the degree to which our motivations are intrinsic affect the morality of our actions?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – by John le Carré
A review of one of le Carré’s most famous novels where George Smiley is on the hunt for a mole in the circus
The Impossible Turing Test
Will we ever admit that AI has become smarter than us? Or is it a goal that will always be just out of reach…
World Without End by Ken Follett
Set in the 14th century in the town of Kingsbridge, World Without End is full of stories of conflict, romance, and revenge.
Finding Meaning in the Modern World
What is the meaning of life? Meaning is often discussed in a philosophical context, but in reality meaning is a feeling. Just like any other feeling, we can find reliable…
The Pillars of the Earth – by Ken Follett
The monarchy has changed a lot in the past 1000 years or so, though some things about it have remained – incredibly – much the same. It was only recently…
Changing Minds: The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr
Stories have been told and retold for millennia. They have comforted those in grief; motivated those who are down; and inspired all manner of acts of kindness, jealousy, hatred, love,…
Talking to Our Selves: Serpentine by Philip Pullman
This is a short story set in the cold, Northern stretches of the world of Pullman’s creation – one much like ours in many ways, but also different. Notably, one…
The Gift of Language and the Hidden Existential Threat of Artificial Intelligence
Giving AI the ability to read and write is a turning point in the course of its development, going far beyond its ability to see and imagine. Will our life…
Ada
A short story originally written in 2020. I have decided to publish it now due to the recent excitement surrounding Artificial Intelligence, and particularly the ethical and existential issues that…
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Farenheit 451 is a very interesting dystopian novel. It reminds me of 1984 in the way it looks critically at society. Given that this novel was published in 1953, it…
A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
This is my third John le Carré novel, but perhaps it should have been the first I read. This is the most autobiographical of le Carré’s works, in which he…
The Breach
Hampstead theatre is cosy; its stage slanting downwards towards the audience, grey and completely empty. The lights go out and darkness descends. Suddenly, the stage is illuminated, and we jump…
Ode to Tube
Through a sea of people you swim and wriggle,All waiting for the same vessel,To carry you far from the place that you are,So through the crowd you wrestle, And hop…
Reflection
I look at the sky and see you,staring back at me.Watery eyes and wavering mouth,Everywhere and nowhere.Why aren’t you who I wanted you to be? A lazy wind makes your…
Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré
Really good book, yeah. That’s probably how Ed would describe it. Mirroring the structure of its plot, on the surface this book appears to be one thing (a spy novel),…
The Pavlovian mind: why and when to tame our bias
Bias: can’t live with it, couldn’t survive without it. Bias is a word that has different connotations depending on who you are. In the common world, when we hear the…
Authentic Matters
Recently, while perusing LinkedIn, I came across a post by a researcher celebrating their recent achievement. They claimed to have had a number of papers accepted into a conference. They…
Activation Energy
Sometimes things need to get worse before they get better. Sometimes things need to get messier before they become clear. Sometimes you need an initial push to get the car…
Why the population is aging
A recent article in the Times [1], shows that many countries are trying to decrease the average age in their country since demographic trends show that the average age is…
Being Too Quick to Judge: A Necessary Evil?
Relatively recently, I wrote a review on Goodreads of the book \”The Secret Commonwealth\” by Philip Pullman. I initially knocked the book a star. I thought it was a 4-star…
Learning out of curiosity: Bubbles of ignorance
The only way to learn is to learn out of curiosity, otherwise, there’s no motivation. If you learn due to an external drive, you’re not really learning. If you don’t…
All the World’s a Stage: Dominic Cummings and the Hypocrisy of Politics
Barnard Castle: A sight for sore eyes? Credit: George Hodan If you’ve been following the UK news recently, you’ll be hard put to have missed the dominating headline: the fall…
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
** This review contains spoilers ** Pullman is back with the second installment of the Book of Dust. The style of writing, and the content, seem very different from the…
Can Money Buy Happiness?
A Sisyphean perspective sheds light on the age-old question of whether money can buy happiness. Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash During this unusual time, many people, including myself, may…
A Delicate Truth by John le Carré
** This review contains spoilers ** I hadn’t read any of John Le Carre’s books before. I actually listened to this as an audiobook read by the author himself. He…
Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman
Good little addition to the original trilogy. It fits neatly between the last book (Amber Spyglass) and the second book of the “equel”, as Pullman has described the Book of…
Translations – Mythical Ireland speaks the Common Tongue
Nothing is lost, but is easy to lose yourself, in this fierce production of a play that looks at the value of a language 5 stars Director Ian Rickson’s new…
In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality by John Gribbin
A really good book that provides a reasonably understandable introduction to quantum mechanics and its history. There is a focus on providing a detailed account of the development of the…
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
** This review contains spoilers ** Great book with classic Dan Brown puzzles and probing into possibly the single most important topic that human kind faces: religion and science. It…
Cairo – More than One Wonder
Houses floating on the Nile (Awammas) – Photo courtesy Hanya El-Geresy (Insta @hanyaelgeresy) For all Cairo’s wonders, there are none that exceed the magnificence of the pyramids. Those are truly…
The Undemocratic Rebellion
\”Mr Stop Brexit\” Steve Bray and a Leave campaigner. Credit: Reuters/Toby Melville. Reading about Brexit recently I encountered one leave supporter describing the current group of remainers and politicians who…
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Good book. Was frequently psychologically thrilling. I especially liked the parts shrouded in mystery, since the sense of not knowing made it all the more terrifying. However, I would say…
Fleeting
I look upon this clearing as it is. Through a parting in the branches above shine Rays of hope too blinding to appreciate And down below A brook of astounding…
La Belle Sauvage: Dust after Darkness
Philip Pullman’s first book of his new series The Book of Dust, La Belle Sauvage, continues in the world of His Dark Materials and is as good as the original.…
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
A good retelling of the biblical narrative. A lot of thought was obviously put into making the book plausible. My opinion is that although the entire thing is a bit…
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany
** This review contains spoilers ** This book was definitely not like the previous Harry Potter books, but that was expected, firstly because it is in play format, secondly because…
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
** This review contains s spoilers ** I thought that this was a redemptive end to the His Dark Materials trilogy.I loved the symbolism throughout the book and the pilgrimage-like…
What is opportunity cost? A matter of life and death.
Opportunity cost is simply the cost of producing a good with reference to what you could have instead produced in the meantime. You can understand it in terms of the…
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
I thought this was a great second instalment to the series of His Dark Materials. Reading it again recently having read La Belle Sauvage, I felt as though Pullman’s original…
La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Brilliant book. Really liked the new characters Malcolm and Alice, as is characteristic of Pullman a strong female character. Pullman has a habit of putting forward strong religious or ethical…
Brexit, greed, and the making of modern Britain
Lyndsey Turner drags the legend of St. George and the Dragon into the modern era There is more death in that kind of life and more life in that kind…
Twelfth Night | A contrast between subtlety and aplomb
Twelfth Night is on at the National Theatre until 13th May Going into the National Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, I was expecting a slightly less-conventional production. I was…
Macbeth | Breathing new life into Shakespeare
Macbeth was on at the National Theatre from the 6th – 20th February Shakespeare for schools is an attempt by director Justin Audibert to bring Shakespeare closer to a ‘younger…
Wish List | A harrowing portrait of zero-hours contracts
Joseph Quinn and Erin Doherty as Dean and Tamsin will enchant you If someone were to wander into the snug stage-room on the top floor of the Royal Court Theatre…
The Disappearing Plank
What I am about to tell you about is magic – REAL magic – that can be performed using mere mathematics. This is not a trick. It is reality. I…
The Girl who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson
** This review contains spoilers ** I thought this book was very funny at times, despite the sentiments of other reviewers. It must be because I haven’t read ‘The 100…
How the Stock Market Works: A Beginner’s Guide to Investment by Michael Becket
I thought this was a great initial introduction to the strange world of stocks. All I really knew about stocks before I read this book was that they were sold…
The Deep Blue Sea at The National
Helen McCrory thrives in this passionate revival of Rattigan’s masterpiece This is the frustrating, and tragic tale of a woman called Hester Collyer. She is, as the title of the…
An encounter you won’t forget
McBurney’s performance recounts the story of Loren McIntyre– an American photographer who travels into the Amazon rainforest to attempt to capture on film an elusive, indigenous people called the Mayoruna.…
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
Great book. Obviously some of the plot lines, as many others have said, seem massively coincidental at best, but what are books for? It’s possible I suppose. Also defined a…
1984 by George Orwell
Wow. This book is pretty amazing when you consider the strange psychological ideas Orwell plays with throughout. It is fairly depressing and makes you think. If there’s one thing I…
Don’t tell me, show me
“Do not simply tell people what happens in a story – show them”. This is a major pseudo-rule in story telling. Its what turns a series of random events into…
Knowledge
When somebody knows everything, they might be right in their own eyes, but certainly not from a less biased perspective. Knowing everything means that there is nothing you do not…
Give me Ten Second by John Sergeant
A great insider account of life at the BBC, as well of the politics of the 70s through the 90s. The book is full of funny little stories and anecdotes…
All Will Be Well: Good Advice from Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill
Great man, great advice. As with most quotes, just pop any old one out and it will be relevant in some way.
To infinity and its negative – a demonstration of the nature of space in the universe
This graph is analogical to movement in the universe. It is in fact the graph of the reciprocal of the hyperbolic tan function. What I wanted to demonstrate was the…
A Mathematical Anecdote Analogous to Chemical Resonance
What this little conundrum suggests is that in infinitely switching between two states, the final result is halfway in between. This is the reasoning behind the structure of benzene and…
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Very good book – intriguing style of writing since each chapter is written from a different point of view (and seems to always end on a cliffhanger).
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A brilliant book which provides an insight into not only the specific slice of history which it talks about – namely the lead up to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan…
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
A very life-changing book. It touches on a lot of metaphysical themes: I think that it has some important lessons in it about following your dreams.
Probability, chaos and the nature of creation
Probability and an elementary, almost axiomatically governing rule of the universe (thoughts given through the analogy of a complex puzzle)I will attempt in this article to describe my views on how…
A Blind Man’s World
The whispering voices, The soft-sounding chimes, The hissing of serpents that slither and slide, Under and over – around the divide, Upon which the sighted found all of their pride,…
There is no such thing as magic!
This article is not about the magic of the Harry Potter Universe – that which fuels the dynamics of wizarding society, but rather the magic that seems to fuel on…
Imaginatively Real – Understanding Imaginary Numbers and why they’re not really all that ‘Imaginary’
Imaginary numbers are one of the mysterious parts of mathematics, which most people have heard about – but not many people truly understand.The first thing that will spring to mind…
We’ll be counting… numbers
You may have learnt the formula in school: $\\sum\\limits_{r=1}^n r = \\frac{(n+1)(n)}{2}$ $n$ here is the last value in the series to be added up. $a$ is the starting value.…
Happy 3rd Birthday!
Physics, Life and Everything Else was created 3 years ago today! Long may this blog continue to prosper!
The Self Referencing Proof or (God’s) Pure Essence Tainted Upon Entering this World
https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/evQsOFQju08&source=uds Watching this video by VSauce recently, reminded me of a question that I had once asked myself: do we all see colours in the same way? When Michael mentioned…
Zero divided by zero?
What is the value of 0/0? At first glance you might think that this actually has the value of 0, considering that if zero is divided by anything it is…
Relative Matters
While reading about the amazing NASA New Horizons Space Probe (which is due to arrive at Pluto in less than a year!) I came across a webpage tracking the movement…
Do you believe in fate?
We oftentimes hear about the suggestion that there is such a thing as \”fate\”, \”destiny\”, a \”plan\” for humankind. These words are tossed around in everyday speech in a myriad…
The Sad Truth About Students
Only programmers will understand. If you would like to learn how to program in C++, thenewboston has a YouTube channel with lots of beginners tutorials. You’ll be hooked once you start.
Reading – A short poem
The written word – oh how it tumbles and its myriad characters rise As if Black, Letters Like Flies rise up and Follow The lines written on the page of…
Computers don’t always do what they’re told to
Thinking about computers, we know that one of these days they\’re going to stop obeying Moore\’s law, at least for silicon microprocessors. Moore\’s law was a prediction made by a…
The never ending end and the means justified
One question we may ask ourselves often is, \’is what I\’m doing really worth doing?\’. Think about the last time you might\’ve thought this way, perhaps it was at school…
About Time – what we "know" about the master of the human race
Originally published at: https://lifephysics.blogspot.com/2014/02/about-time-what-we-about-master-of.html We all encounter it everyday. We think about it constantly. We can hardly say a thing without mentioning it. Yes, what I’m talking about is of…
How to improve your life with a ‘P’…
Originally published at: https://lifephysics.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-improve-your-life-with-p.html I’ve thought up a little system composed of ten words. These words describe and include ten things that apply to everyone in the world, and will…
The World Upside Down
Originally published at: https://lifephysics.blogspot.com/2011/10/world-upside-down.html We all know about the laws of physics and gravity and the like. We know that previous societies thought that the sun and stars revolved around…
Arrogance about Knowledge
Originally published at: https://lifephysics.blogspot.com/2011/10/arrogance-about-knowledge.html Of course, many of us in the world have often said: ‘Oh, I know all about that’ and therefore don’t listen to what others have to…
Charges of Geresy 