Latest results in the hunt for dark matter

Posted on 24/07/2016 by Jon Butterworth

At the Guardian.

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How CERN’s Large Hadron Collider gives us insight into the unknown

Posted on 07/07/2016 by Jon Butterworth

At the Guardian.

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Don’t let’s quit

Posted on 22/06/2016 by Jon Butterworth

This doesn’t belong on the Guardian Science pages, because even though universities and science will suffer if Britain leaves the EU, that’s not my main reason for voting ‘remain’. But lots of friends have been writing or talking about their choice, and the difficulties of making it, and I feel the need to write my own reasons down even if everyone is saturated by now. It’s nearly over, after all.

Even though the EU is obviously imperfect, a pragmatic compromise, I will vote to stay in with hope and enthusiasm. In fact, I’ll do so partly because it’s an imperfect, pragmatic compromise.

I realise there are a number of possible reasons for voting to leave the EU, some better than others, but please don’t.

Democracy

Maybe you’re bothered because EU democracy isn’t perfect. Also we can get outvoted on some things (these are two different points. Being outvoted sometimes is actually democratic. Some limitations on EU democracy are there to stop countries being outvoted by other countries too often). But it sort of works and it can be improved, especially if we took EU elections more seriously after all this. And we’re still ‘sovereign’, simply because we can vote to leave if we get outvoted on something important enough.

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Running to stand still: a brief political analogy

Posted on 07/06/2016 by Jon Butterworth

Yesterday morning, the clock radio was broken because we’d spilled water on it. In the evening, a bolt fell out of the bed, and we noticed that the whole bed was in danger of collapse.

During the day, I dried out the clock radio and it began working fine again. I also stripped down the bed, refitted the bolt and tightened the others, so the bed is structurally sound again. And we won’t keep a glass of water right near the radio again either.

So somehow this felt like a productive day, and in one sense it was. By prompt action I had saved myself a certain amount of expense and danger.

In another sense, I was in fact right back where I thought I had been the day before.

I will feel similar, on a much more serious scale if, by the end of the year, the UK remains in the EU and Donald Trump is not President of the USA. Surprising danger and expense avoided. Things much as I thought they were before, with perhaps some resulting improvement in underlying structures.

Right now, things feel ricketty.

Oh, and UK people who haven’t already, please register to vote today!

 

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