When a measure becomes a target then it ceases to be a measure. From BBC News, 25 September 2015: According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), some cars being sold in America had devices in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve results. “We’ve totally screwed… Continue reading REF and Volkswagen’s cheating device
Month: September 2015
Plastid Preview 2015
A fascinating two days, ably hosted by Christine Raines and colleagues in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex. The venue was the new, light, spacious Essex Business School, a building replete with winter garden and turf-roofed, space-age lecture hall with dire acoustics. A colleague from an ancient university remarked that the small, internal… Continue reading Plastid Preview 2015
The Evolutionary Origin of Oxygenic Photosynthesis
The title of my presentation at ASB6 “The Origin, Distribution & Detection of Life in the Universe”, 2 – 4 September 2015, Centre for Planetary Sciences at UCL/Birkbeck A summary of my view is given on the Web page section entitled The origin of atmospheric oxygen. There are ways in which to test the hypothesis… Continue reading The Evolutionary Origin of Oxygenic Photosynthesis
Why do we need two sexes?
“There is no greater mystery in the whole world, as it seems to me, than the existence of the sexes, – more especially since the discovery of Parthenogenesis. The origination of the sexes seems beyond all speculation.” Charles Darwin: Letter to J. S. Henslow, 16 July 1860 It was an honour and a pleasure to… Continue reading Why do we need two sexes?