tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153296032012-01-25T22:25:52.985ZTimandra is a freelance writer whose interests range from motorbikes to Twentieth Century opera, from the rise of New Puritanism to the conquest of space. Read more at www.timandraharkness.comTimandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.comBlogger431100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-51351645280073524052012-01-25T22:14:00.002Z2012-01-25T22:25:52.990Z

In 2012 we're touring Your Days Are Numbered: the maths of death in the UK and taking it to the Adelaide Fringe and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in Australia. The first show sold out on a wet Sunday night in Salford, which is a good sign. If we're not booked to come near you, there's still time to contact your local venue and urge them to book the show.

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-4690575797457443982011-12-02T00:14:00.000Z2011-12-02T00:16:45.249Z

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-86338694983914574812011-12-01T23:20:00.002Z2011-12-02T00:04:23.627Z

So how did I get to be driving a convertible around Cape Canaveral, pretending to be an astronaut? It's all thanks to FameLab.But before I hit Cocoa Beach I spent a busy autumn discussing seduction by statistics and Sex in the Brain at the Battle of Ideas, and Fear at Bishopsgate Institute. And checking out the motorbikes at Motorcycle Live 2011.Then I hit the road as the gas bubble in the spirit

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-9982030827683093682011-09-17T23:46:00.003+01:002011-09-19T09:45:09.508+01:00

A busy autumn, with lots of travel. Including a trip to India to help judge Debating Matters India, a competition for school teams who tackle some of the trickiest issues around. Then on to the USA to take FameLab on the next step of its world domination plan - which I can't talk about yet, but it's VERY exciting. I'm also judging regional finals of FameLab UK - so if you're a scientist or

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-2398344492312308972011-06-06T20:14:00.003+01:002011-06-06T20:53:31.625+01:00

I'm now at the Cheltenham Science Festival, where I have a full schedule of training and chairing to fit around the essential networking activities. And on Friday evening we'll be performing Your Days Are Numbered - the maths of death again, to our biggest audience yet (last time I asked we were outselling everybody except Brian Cox. And he's the second-sexiest physicist on television after Jim

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-18661683687992460702011-05-08T16:34:00.002+01:002011-05-08T17:12:34.317+01:00

It's been a jet-setting month, if working around Europe still counts as jet-setting. In between training young scientists and engineers in communication skills as part of their FameLab Masterclass weekends, I've been invited to perform in some unusual settings. Like the Beautiful Science programme on Bulgarian National Television, where I had simultaneous translation into Bulgarian. And at a

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-44398575365119233862011-03-31T15:16:00.002+01:002011-03-31T15:51:27.403+01:00

I've been on the booze a lot lately, and that looks set to continue. Not just drinking it, but talking about its impact on society and what - if anything - we should do about it. Like minimum alcohol pricing, for example.In fact, I'll shortly be talking to a Public Health Conference and planning to use the booze as my topic. Possibly tactless, as I'm on the morning after the conference reception

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-82990764864792353392010-11-18T22:12:00.002Z2010-11-18T22:21:54.369Z

This month I have mainly been doing mathematics. I’m hosting a few Maths Inspiration days, which thankfully is less about me knowing maths than about me knowing how to host a lively event. We also performed Your Days Are Numbered again, this time to a firm of actuaries (anyone else ever been heckled with the word “stochastic”?).And, just for fun, I spent a whole weekend at MathsJam, where my mind

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-81390617906707042802010-10-15T18:10:00.002+01:002010-10-15T18:30:15.713+01:00

I'm having a very scientific month. On Saturday 9th I stuck my oar in at the Science is Vital rally outside the treasury, mainly defending the importance of science to comedy. On Monday 18th I'm speaking on evidence and public health, where I'll be using some of our research for Your Days Are Numbered: the maths of death. But regardless of what the evidence says - and it tends to be me much more

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-91526574551800741312010-09-02T19:18:00.002+01:002010-09-02T20:07:28.463+01:00

no, really. Moderate drinkers are healthier and less likely to die than non-drinkers. If you want the maths of that, you should have come to our Edinburgh Fringe show, Your Days Are Numbered; the maths of death. "Exponentially funny", as one of our (4) four star reviews said. Or perhaps you tried and it was sold out! It's now available for touring and actuaries' Christmas parties, so you may get

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-34828133733153252812010-06-20T23:26:00.002+01:002010-06-20T23:34:12.248+01:00

... which is the title of our Edinburgh show (subtitle - the maths of death). And apt, as my days feel all too numbered, the ones before our first public preview, anyway.With stand up mathematician Matt Parker, I'll be peforming what we have written so far at the Canal Cafe Theatre on June 22nd and July 5th, and at the Cockpit theatre on July 27th (matinee and evening).After that, it's off to the

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-3597763720596494832010-05-22T10:03:00.004+01:002010-05-22T11:22:09.670+01:00

So, Craig Venter has "played God" by synthesising the DNA of a bacterium, sticking it into the host cell of another bacterium, and proving that it behaves exactly like the one it was modelled on. Or "creating artificial life", as the headlines have it.Of course, without an existing host cell that was already living, it wouldn't have worked. And scientists are already able to genetically modify

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-9181962545286245702010-05-05T19:11:00.003+01:002010-05-05T19:27:02.126+01:00

...and no, I don't mean the General Election. I'm unable to muster any optimism about whatever government emerges from this vote with whatever "well, they can't be as bad as the other lot", mandate from the people. The only cheering prospect is that, whatever impression you might have got from endless media rehashing of how well or badly the party leaders dealt with the media, there is some

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-70885378358070098832010-04-13T17:37:00.002+01:002010-04-13T18:04:41.916+01:00

So, once again we get to elect our government, and once again it's hard to find much discussion of politics. I'm backing the Institute of Ideas' 21 pledges. If nothing else, it's a chance to raise some of the major issues that should be on the agenda - freedom, investing in our economic future, funding important things like education and the Arts without fettering them with other agendas like

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-40736578742987270272010-03-05T00:45:00.005Z2010-03-05T01:58:34.593Z

Next week is National Science and Engineering Week, and I'll be mostly in Manchester with the Big Bang Fair, doing shows about engineering. So I'm partly preparing for that by catching up on what's new and exciting in technology.But I'm also preparing for another event on March 20th, looking at science in a different context. I'm helping convene a session about evidence-based policy at the Battle

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-49861128533591236002010-01-23T19:25:00.002Z2010-01-23T19:47:05.334Z

This week I have variously worked on new comedy science ideas, written content for a motorcycling web site, discussed what voting means in an era when politicians no longer have any politics, and reviewed The Rake's Progress at the Royal Opera House for Culture Wars. Call me Renaissance Woman. Then I hosted (chaired, facilitated, whatever) a discussion about secret lives.Which was fascinating.

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-39003289284999871142010-01-08T16:30:00.001Z2010-01-08T16:31:36.991Z

... my Open University Maths course has just arrived in a parcel.

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-46288761047193291062010-01-08T16:11:00.001Z2010-01-08T16:25:44.094Z

Yes, yes, it’s still snowy, it’s getting colder and the UK has ground to a halt. Here in London I’m feeling a little cheated, as we have only enough weather to make the pavements slippery and keep out-of-towners from fulfilling social engagements (though I’ve spent worse hours than the one by an open fire, dining alone on duck breast and a glass of red, watching snowflakes fat as goose feathers

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-71254496436108260992009-12-18T00:45:00.003Z2009-12-18T01:33:08.015Z

Snow brings a frisson of enjoyable unpredictability to London, the prospect of the urban landscape transformed into a shining, unfamiliar environment. But the Times chose to see it as an opportunity to threaten children, by devoting its children's page in T2 to snow and its imminent disappearance from the planet if we don't take action to stop global warming.what action, exactly, can children

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-52974418961805393962009-11-15T14:49:00.005Z2009-11-15T16:50:44.764Z

So, only 2 out of 5 people in the UK think human activity is to blame for global warming, according to a poll for the Times. And only 28% of those polled agreed that it is happening and is “far and away the most serious problem we face as a country and internationally”.As somebody who gets to hang out with a lot of scientists, one of the perks of my job, I can already hear them tutting, muttering

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-5352732914192546502009-10-30T22:49:00.003Z2009-10-30T23:29:25.071Z

So, the government has sacked Professor David Nutt from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs for saying what he thinks - which is that the separation between illegal drugs like cannabis and (relatively) legal ones such as alcohol and tobacco was artificial, not based on actual differences in the risks they carry. He's previously compared the dangers of ecstasy to those of horse riding.

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-38654200423135585972009-10-04T14:38:00.004+01:002009-10-04T15:05:02.798+01:00

I was a bit disappointed last week when the headline “Water found on the Moon” didn’t occasion newsflashes across all media. Perhaps I really am a space geek and should stop getting so excited about the faint echoes of the golden Space Age. But now NASA’s probes are about to crash into the Moon’s South Polar area, hoping to throw up a plume of debris and reveal more water than the faint coating

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-62827055770462394742009-09-03T11:57:00.002+01:002009-09-05T14:00:38.732+01:00

I’m just back from Hong Kong, which was everything they say it is – hectic, hotter than a sauna, a seething mass of humanity packed into high-rise buildings, growing so fast they’re having to create new land to build on.Yes, it was love at first sight. The multinational, multicultural vibrancy, the sheer beauty of the place, audaciously tall buildings proliferating between mountains and sea. If

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-47290469529815512392009-08-02T13:42:00.001+01:002009-08-02T14:32:50.385+01:00

Reports of the legalisation of death are exaggerated. All the UK’s Law Lords have done is rule that the law should be clarified, so people like campaigner Debbie Purdy can let their loved ones help them die abroad without fearing prosecution here. We’re a long way off a policy change that would officially sanction helping somebody else to end their own life.And a good thing too. I’m sure it’s a

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-67801520260485452892009-07-20T23:14:00.003+01:002009-07-20T23:49:38.856+01:00

I admit it, I am wallowing in lunar nostalgia, looking back 40 years to a time I don't even remember, when going to the Moon was a great thing to do because it was hard, because it was risky and daring and nobody had done it before. And, of course, because of the Cold War and the drive to beat the Russians to something, after they'd put the first satellite, the first man and the first woman into

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-82632463327065212722009-07-04T18:06:00.000+01:002009-07-05T10:48:19.176+01:00

Normally I try not to spend too much time working with anyone under the age of about ... 26. At a push, 23. (Though I do make an exception for the Debating Matters competition which is having its national and international finals this weekend.)But I have just spent a great week working with the engineers of the future, doing a show called Alphabeat for teenage audiences at a Learning Grid event.

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-23178809460342864792009-06-20T21:15:00.002+01:002009-06-20T21:59:23.468+01:00

After two weeks I have just about recovered from Cheltenham, which was as usual a full programme of events all day and networking all night.I was glad to see Simon Singh there. Simon’s outspoken criticism of the claims made by chiropractors has resulted in the British Chiropractic Association taking him to court for libel.The British libel laws, long overdue for reform, work only to stifle free

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-68019765033906091812009-06-02T17:49:00.002+01:002009-06-02T17:58:16.180+01:00

I’m off to Cheltenham for the annual Science Festival, the closest thing scientists have to the Edinburgh Fringe. This year I’ll be concentrating on the science gameshow I developed – Not Rocket Science. This will be its second year at Cheltenham - last year the audience nearly won, which tells you something about how smart they are or about how drunk the team members got before the show. This

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-6673036320181420252009-05-22T16:13:00.004+01:002009-05-22T16:50:38.888+01:00

The European Space Agency named the next six astronauts this week. Though initially they'll be training and maybe making a quick trip to the International Space Station, they are in line to go further one day, back to the Moon or maybe even to Mars.One of them is Major Tim Peake, a 37 year old helicopter test pilot from Salisbury. So at last there may be a Brit in space who didn't have to cheat

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-78202567077418195982009-05-04T19:36:00.001+01:002009-05-04T19:53:14.586+01:00

Over the Bank Holiday weekend I chaired a very interesting discussion at the SciFi London film festival. In response for the current vogue for post-apocalyptic senarios in science fiction film, three speakers addressed the question “Are We Doomed?”, and you’ll be relieved to hear that the consensus was “no”.However, it threw up some very interesting questions. If, as seems likely, we’re not

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-17319348269247677232009-04-17T13:54:00.003+01:002009-04-17T14:45:04.046+01:00

I'm having a surreal parallel universe experience. I'm addicted to US TV series the Wire, which really is as good as everyone says. The heroes use surveillance and phone-tapping to battle drug-dealing, corruption and murder, battling not only the crooks but the bureacracy of their own police system. But it seems my local council is probably using similar powers to clamp down on people who, er...

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-90304475121214162682009-03-09T15:04:00.003Z2009-03-09T15:35:10.024Z

Busy times, as the Comedy Research Project prepares for Friday 13th’s show in Oxford. Doing for science what Morecambe and Wise did for ballet, we’re always rewriting to use whatever new science we can find that might be funny.For example – and this isn’t in the show – this week “science tells us” that teenagers need a lie in. In fact, according to Professor Russell Foster of Oxford University,

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-2659373070980302862009-02-20T20:45:00.001Z2009-02-20T20:47:05.191Z

Human flight is one of the most beautiful ways we can defy the limits of nature. It’s also a mark of social progress, of course, but simply sticking two fingers up at gravity by harnessing the laws of physics and the benefits of the industrial revolution is a pure and lovely act of human defiance.Which is why I was in Parliament Square on Thursday night as part of the Modern Movement’s

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-57539403897773929992009-02-13T19:42:00.003Z2009-02-13T19:58:16.446Z

The funniest news this week is that Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, is to be sent on an “equality course”.Have they really thought this through? This is a young man who stands to inherit a position of political power over millions of us, just because of whose son he happens to be. Not to mention wealth beyond the dreams of a Russian oligarch. All for simply outliving his dad

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-62591942135326807682009-02-09T13:31:00.002Z2009-02-09T13:36:35.974Z

Hats off to Sammy Wilson for standing up to the political consensus. He’s the Northern Ireland Environment Minister, but he’s startled many (including some inside his own department) by refusing to disseminate the UK Government’s message on carbon emissions.Which, in case you’d missed it, is that we are all to blame for the imminent demise of the polar bear, floods in Bangladesh, and the

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-17377120028466558782009-01-26T21:02:00.001Z2009-01-26T21:08:25.239Z

Happy New Year - year of the Ox, though 2009 still feels pretty new to me. Also International Year of Astronomy, 150 years of Darwin's On The Origin Of Species, a century since Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus and forty years since the first human being set foot on the Moon.I'm a bit of a Space Age fan, mortified that it's over 30 years since anyone last walked on the Moon, and frankly

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-1154542754615293072006-08-02T17:19:00.000+01:002006-08-02T19:19:14.736+01:00

I've realised two things about this blog: It's almost the first thing to fall off my "things to do " list when I'm busy (the first thing, obviously, is any form of exercise). And I tend to write it when I'm angry or depressed about something in the news.Now, that's not entirely a sign of bad psychological outlook on my part. The media bulge with bad news - usually predictions of doom for the

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-1141411547794502662006-03-03T18:41:00.000Z2006-03-03T18:45:47.856Z

A couple of years ago I chaired a debate at Cheltenham Science Festival called “Animal Experiments – Good, Bad or Necessary Evil?” At the end, the audience voted – “Good” and “Bad” were fairly evenly split, but the vast majority, and I was one of them, voted “necessary evil”. I’d now like to change my mind.It’s taken a 16 year old school student to do what governments, universities and most of us

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-1141049389185982332006-02-27T14:06:00.000Z2006-02-27T14:09:49.200Z

I am, as you’ll know if you’ve looked at my website, half of a comedy science double act, the Comedy Research Project. Tongue in cheek, we claim to be testing the hypothesis that science can be funny, by locking a control audience into an adjacent room without comedians to see who laughs more. Sometimes we look at the bemused faces on the front row and wonder whether the control audience would be

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-1140195007711859942006-02-17T16:37:00.000Z2006-02-17T16:50:07.723Z

As I lay in bed yesterday morning, listening to Radio 4, I was reminded of a conversation I had about 10 years ago. For some reason I’d got talking about the likelihood of a fascist regime taking over in the UK, I can’t remember why.But I do remember saying that I thought an authoritarian regime based on Nazi principles would never take hold in the UK. There is, rightly, far too much popular

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-1125078150685542052005-08-26T17:56:00.000+01:002005-08-26T18:42:30.693+01:00

I was depressed to hear, at the beginning of the week, that two of the top 3 books that British MPs planned to read on holiday were The Da Vinci Code and the new Harry Potter book. So, a voting majority of those elected to the Mother of all Parliaments choose to spend their precious reading time on either a shoddily-written mystery, or a children’s book? What does this tell us about their

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-1124527645230736502005-08-20T09:45:00.000+01:002005-08-20T09:47:25.236+01:00

Last Friday night my boyfriend and I were approached by some hoodies on Wimbledon Common.Having staggered out of the pub at closing time after a brief binge drinking session, we’d decided to go looking for shooting stars. So we put a bottle of champagne into my handy chiller bag and found a nice hill in the middle of the dark common on which to lie, drinking bubbly and looking up at the Leonids

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15329603.post-1123867073545585022005-08-12T18:05:00.000+01:002005-08-12T18:17:53.550+01:00

I laughed out loud over today’s newspaper, reading about amateur psychic Herve Vandrot and his crystal ball. He left it on the windowledge of his Edinburgh flat and went out to pursue his botany studies, failing to foresee that it would focus the sun’s rays onto a pile of laundry and start a fire, gutting three flats before his return. Alas, the laws of physics could have predicted that a

Timandra Harknesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11768414548059605095noreply@blogger.com0