I inherited from my Glaswegian great grandfather a book containing a long account by Joseph Black, then professor of medicine in that city, of his original experiments on medicines used…
The young optician examining my eyes spoke with a slight Spanish accent. I asked him where he came from and he told me that he was from Seville but now…
We are informed that the wholesale price of natural gas has tripled since April and that this is forcing many fuel supply companies into closure, threatening the production of carbon…
From the summit of South Barrule on a clear day you can stand in complete solitude and see the seven realms. Around you lies Mann, once inhabited by Celts then…
Friday 9 November My connection to the Great War is tenuous â a great uncle I never met fought somewhere in France and survived. He lost an arm in the…
One of the first scientific facts most of us learned at primary school is that water is made of two gases â two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen â…
A new King, George VI had recently been crowned, and I became familiar with his features on the coins and stamps we used. The Prime Minister was Winston Churchill. I…
At a round of golf sometime back in the 1960s, one of the group of players decided to share some apples he had brought along. They were good apples, recalled…
The implication of the graphs I showed in last week’s article is that action on climate change is urgent and will be painful. Two recent events, apparently unrelated, draw attention…
Nor any drop to drink. The Romantic poets had gone rather out of fashion among students studying English at university in my day, but their poems do have a way…