Science


Ambergris is a rare and precious gift from the ocean. It is a waxy substance found floating on the sea or sometimes washed up on a beach. For hundreds of years it was a vital ingredient in producing perfumes; it is a natural fixative that ensures sweet fragrances linger long after they are dabbed to the skin. But it can be described another way: the indigestible […]

Ambergris – floating gold


Lasers! The future condensed into a single beam of penetrating light. What did I know about lasers? Next to nothing. What do I know now? A little bit more, including the surprising fact that laser is an acronym. Someone asked me to write about lasers. Ahem. You could easily write everything I knew about lasers on the back of a fag packet. A small fag packet. […]

Reach for the lasers



What species has the greatest combined mass? All the world’s African elephants, or the oceans’ stock of blue whales (respectively the largest land and sea mammals)? Neither. It is the Antartic krill, weighing in at just two grams and growing to six centimetres long. What the Antartic krill lacks in individual size it more than makes up in collective heft. It has a combined biomass of […]

Krillion