It's impossible to deny that leaving the EU was not an economic disadvantage for the UK - but when it comes to the EU's delight in bureaucracy, it can sometimes be something of a relief, never more so than when it comes to IT: brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/07/did-... #ITregulation #AI

Interview: Journalist Geoffrey Cain tells us why Steve Jobs' time with NeXT was crucial to his development and modern Apple products, what was wrong with the NeXT Cube and about the current turmoil in Silicon Valley. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/07/geof... #ITHistory #AppleComputer #SteveJobs

Review (SF): The Best of Roger Zelazny ***** - Mix of shorts and novellas that demonstrate Zelazny's talent including some classics - oddly, despite being in the SF Masterworks series, several of the best are fantasy. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-... #bookreview #sciencefiction #fantasy

In today's 'wind up a scientist' blog post I insist that we should treat 'data' as a collective noun and say 'the data shows', not 'the data show' etc.: brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/06/revi... #englishlanguage #pedantry #plurals

It's a bit of a dodgy headline, but my BBC Sky At Night magazine piece they've titled '"People think science is about the truth. It's not" – Why everything we know about the Universe could be mere guesswork' is available online: www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-scienc... #opinionpiece #cosmology

I feel a touch in danger agreeing with something from Kemi Badenoch on Bluesky (oddly more so than criticising Elon Musk on X), but she surely has it right that we shouldn't have to put up with Steve Bray's ridiculous disruption of Keir Starmer's speech:

Review: This is Life: Christophe Galfard ***** - I can’t remember when I last enjoyed a biology book so much as a pure reading experience. Galfard explores where we come from a species with remarkable storytelling. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/06/this... #bookreview #popularscience

Review: The Science of Repair: Gwen Ottinger *** - Makes an important point about the need to use science well to support local communities, but more an article than a book, and overloaded with US academic obsessions. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-... #bookreview #socialjustice

Where can you buy Love Hearts with 70% alcohol, you may ask? Sadly, it was novelty hand gel...

Tonight’s event “The Climate Change Hoax” has been CANCELLED due to the extreme temperatures.

A recent preprint entitled 'Relativity for Retired Engineers' underlines the difficulties that some scientists have in putting physics across to the general reader: brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/06/do-w... #specialrelativity #physics #sciencecommunication

40C in London on Wednesday and a Red Heat Alert As far as I know, nothing from the mayor or the government about mitigation - establishment of cool refuges, closing of schools etc The approach seems to be to pretend it's just normal hot weather It really isn't

Review (mystery): Haven't They Grown - Sophie Hannah *** - Quite glad I read it, if only to get to the bottom of the mystery of a friend's children appearing unchanged after 12 years - but I wish that bottom had been more plausible. brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/06/have... #bookreview #mystery

There has been a lot in the news recently telling us that Elon Musk is now a trillionaire. But is he really? And if he is and visits Tenerife, what happens to average wealth there? brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/06/is-e... #trillionaires #shareholdings #tenerife

Nice to see Sky at Night magazine leading with a piece in Apple News on doubts about evidence for multiverses (much more available in my book, The Multiverse: www.brianclegg.net/multiverse.h...) #cosmology #multiverses #speculativescience

Review: The Random Universe: Andrew Jaffe ***** - Probably the best book I've read on the reality of the scientific method, how scientists build models, how they deal with randomness, uncertainty and the pitfalls of induction. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-... #bookreview #popularscience

Interview: Geophysics professor @profbillmcguire.bsky.social tells us why he wrote a book about past climates to understand the future, why geoengineering can't be an answer to climate change and a scary new paper popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/06/bill... #climatechange #geophysics #globalwarming

A new book about the dinosaur of the chatbot world, ELIZA, inspires some memories of using it in the 70s and a reflection on a parallel with Babbage's engines: brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/06/did-... #AI #chatbots #prehistory

How about making my weekend and stop referring to 'a reverend' as if it were a job title. It's not: brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/06/reve... #honorifics #jobtitles #confusion

Sign up for my free newsletter to get a weekly Friday compendium of interesting stuff: authory.com/BrianClegg/s... - this week's include Rocket Science, science fiction, a postcard from China and jay-walking. #newsletter #subscription

Review: It's (Just) Rocket Science: Trisha Muro ****- Trisha Muro manages a new way of exploring basic physics by using the applications of a whole list of satellites and probes to explain how they apply. Works best oddly on non-space topics. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/06/its-... #bookreview

When the neighbours pop by unexpectedly...

I recently received a postcard from China with a question about time regarded as a dimension. Apart from wondering how someone in China got hold of my address, I attempt an answer: brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/06/a-po... #postcards #physicsquestions #time

Tickets still available - hope to see some of you tonight! t.co/Xj2m9CmNe6

Review (SF): Macroscope - Piers Anthony *** - A notable if weird contribution to the development of SF writing from 1969. In part space opera, but also incorporates hyper-intelligence and astrology (really). A curiosity. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/06/macr... #bookreview #sciencefiction

Reading about the problems of introducing self-driving cars in the UK, I find myself getting irritated by an American article that accused us of jay-walking: brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/06/its-... #roadsafety #autonomoushumans #pedestriansrule

UK publishing generated £7.4 billion in revenue last year. Compare that to: Premier League football: £6.6 billion Home entertainment: £5.6 billion UK film industry: 2.8 billion Now tell me again why authors don't deserve fair contracts and better pay.

Also in breaking news... Pope says he is Catholic.

Loving the standout cover of my new book The Electron: A biography - you can too now, as it's on sale. See www.brianclegg.net/electron.html 'Essential reading for our electrified age, this biography of a particle is a biography of all of us' Roger Highfield: Science Director, The Science Museum

Review (crime): Body of Lies - Jo Callaghan ***** - In the world of boilerplate police procedurals, the fourth in the series featuring AI detective Lock is refreshingly original. This final novel features a national threat. brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/06/body... #bookreview #murdermystery

I'm fond of our local café, but I'm not sure if they want to be open until 3 in the morning on Sundays...

Review: Climate Wayfinding - Katharine Wilkinson ** - You couldn't get further from popular science than this. It's one for the 'me' generation about how climate change makes us feel (and getting a group to share these feelings): Not for me. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/06/clim... #bookreview

Review (crime): Lovejoy Omnibus - Jonathan Gash **** - Revisiting the 1970s: sadly, Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy books are mostly out of print: given the boilerplate crime novels of today these tales of dodgy antique dealings were genuinely different brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/05/love... #bookreview

Gotta have some snacks #booksky

Review: Steve Jobs in Exile: Geoffrey Cain ***** - A fascinating portrayal of a the transformation of Steve Jobs when ousted from Apple: his brilliant but doomed startup NeXT and his return to rescue Apple. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/05/stev... #bookreview #technologyhistory #AppleComputer

Interview: Science journalist Helen Pearson tells us how she became interested in the origins of evidence-based medicine, why theories require evidential support and the importance of systemic reviews. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/05/hele... #interviews #evidencebasedmedicine #systemicreviews

Review (SF): Neuromancer: William Gibson ***** - Sometimes you have to revisit the classics: it's hard to believe but this archetypal cyberpunk novel, featuring hackers, AI and the matrix, is over 40 years old. Still striking. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/05/neur... #bookreview #sciencefiction

I have been known to criticise science magazine for hyperbole with headlines containing 'may' or 'could', but the teaser for a recent article on an interesting if speculative idea has pushed it too far: brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/05/when... O no we're not. #sciencejournalism #hype

Oh good - yet more contributions to climate change as they biodegrade...

Review (mystery): Sepulchre Street - Martin Edwards **** - A successful fourth in the 1930s set Rachel Savernake series sees the mysterious Rachel asked to solve a murder before it occurs, followed by multiple dodgy doings: brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/05/sepu... #bookreview #murdermystery

Really disappointed by Labour members of Swindon council. Usually all councillors vote for the leader of the biggest party (Conservative), to become leader of the Council. But Labour wouldn’t accept any cross party working, despite Conservatives backing their Mayor and committee chairs. Pathetic.

A new take on a perennial astrophysics favourite:

With the author as a character, and the murder victim and actor playing another character it's brilliantly twisty...

Review: The Fate of the World: @profbillmcguire.bsky.social ***** - One of the most depressing things I've ever read - but the best climate book in ages. Uses past climate variations to give a stark picture of what is to come popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-... #bookreview #climatechange

Review (Mystery) - A Deadly Episode: Anthony Horowitz ***** - The most meta detective story ever with a murder on the set of the film of the first book in the same series. Horowitz at his funny, twisty best. brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/05/a-de... #bookreview #murdermystery #crimefiction

Review: Facing Infinity: Jonas Enander **** - As well as a good coverage of black holes basics, takes on surprising implications from accurate measurements of locations on Earth to the role of black hole jets in spreading matter. popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/05/faci... #bookreview #astrophysics

Just got my copies of my new book The Electron - A Biography - out early June. You're not going to miss it...

Review (mystery): The Ending Writes Itself - Evelyn Clarke ***(*) - despite the Scottish setting very much a US crime novel with a bunch of midlist authors given a chance of a lifetime... that proves deadly brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-... #bookreview #murdermystery

Forgot to mention this is The Circle by Dave Eggers… see review for more:

Review: The Delicate Art of Brute Force - Paul Nahin *** - an effective textbook lite on using computers to solve mathematical problems. Great for undergraduates popsciencebooks.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-... #bookreview #mathematicalcomputing