MMR and me

Posted on 19/04/2013 by Jon Butterworth

I have a doctorate in physics. My wife has one in chemistry. We have an 11-year-old son, who should have got his MMR jab in 2003

A lot has been written about the MMR scare of just over a decade ago. More is being written now because children who were not immunised back then are getting measles. The scare has been thoroughly debunked by people who took risks and did a lot of work. I’m not going to add anything to that.

But I do want to add a personal story. It’s no big deal, but it might be helpful to some people. So here we go.

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(Don’t) Respect my Authority

Posted on 13/04/2013 by Jon Butterworth

A venue, a role, an award, can lend authority. But it’s only a loan.

At the Guardian.

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Iain M Banks, and what we might be when we have nothing to fear

Posted on 03/04/2013 by Jon Butterworth

The Culture is wonderful. And, sadly, still fiction

At the Guardian.

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Speckled eggs and the early universe

Posted on 26/03/2013 by Jon Butterworth

‘The deviations were there way before that… That’s what makes this so cool.’ Ed Copeland explains Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation and the Planck results

Still wondering exactly why Planck’s speckled-egg pictures are so wonderful? Here’s a typically relaxed and clear explanation by Ed Copeland of what they tell us about events 380,000 years after the big bang, and what that tells us about even earlier times. And in 17 minutes, you will understand as much about inflatons as I do.

So there you have it. And if you want to know how it all relates to the particle physics, you couldn’t do a lot worse than watch this.

Also at the Guardian.

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