journalist, writer and recovering physicist
Nanotechnology at the level of chemical physics doesn’t normally attract popular attention, but a recent paper in Nature Communications is worth highlighting given its implications for the use of two-dimensional materials in electronics. Graphene is the best known 2d material, and much has been said of its wondrous properties in various applications including electronic components. […]
Read More →US Secretary of state Rex Tillerson has in a speech delivered today in Warsaw warned that the planned Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline between Russia and Germany presents a major threat to European energy security. Tillerson’s concerns are justified, to a smallish degree, but the language is alarmist, and hides the fact that […]
Read More →When political and business leaders pontificate on ethics, as England’s acting prime minister Theresa May has done today in Davos, you should immediately check for your purse. Davos, aka the World Economic Forum, is an annual excuse in mutual backscratching and deal-making among the world’s uber-rich (pun intended) and politicians, democratic or otherwise. The democratic […]
Read More →President Emmanuel Macron has for reasons best known to himself agreed to loan the priceless Bayeux embroidery to England, as part of a political exercise in highlighting the strength of Anglo-French relations. One hopes this magnificent object doesn’t become a hostage to Brexit, with England using it to blackmail France in future Anglo-European diplomatic manoeuvres. […]
Read More →For most of my adult life we’ve been fed an ideological line that the state provides nothing of economic value, and all that matters is private enterprise. With Thatcherism and monetarist dogma, the crisis of ownership in 1970s industry made way for deregulation and privatisation of state-owned firms, natural monopolies included. This in turn led […]
Read More →The UK government’s Brexit roadshow in Berlin has taken on a comical turn. Or at least that’s how our German cousins will see Keeper of the Public Purse Phil Hammond’s insistence that “it takes two to tango”. Spreadsheet Phil is a most unfair moniker for such a star entertainer. In short, we have an unhappy […]
Read More →The British political media today are focused, bordering on obsessed, with the German “charm offensive” of finance minister Phil Hammond and hapless Brexit gofer David Davis. I emphasise the word obsessed, as that is how the UK’s Brexit stance is aptly described by Almut Möller, Berlin office chief for the European Council on Foreign Relations. […]
Read More →All you need to know about today’s government reshuffle… Larry remains the First Feline of the Treasury, whilst Palmerston refuses to cede his patch at the Foreign Office. Strong and stable. Steady as she goes.
Read More →I see that the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has entered 2018 with a call for a summit focused on science in the UK post-Brexit. Whatever their personal views of Brexit, including whether EU withdrawal will actually happen, the committee members are doing their job, and one hopes that the summit comes up […]
Read More →The EU’s lead Brexit negotiator Michelle Barnier has in a press conference this morning said that the UK’s transition period out of the union will end on 31 December 2020. This is the official view of the European Commission, and Barnier’s announcement is likely to be met with the usual hot air and indignation in […]
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