Control of the biotechnology involved in producing genetically modified crops is concentrated in the hands of a few multinational companies, in part because of the complex web of patents involved. A group at CAMBIA, the Center for the Application of Molecular Biology for International Agriculture...

Two readers (a triumph in itself) have informed me that my site now looks terrible on their browsers. One even sent a screenshot, which suggests that the browser is not seeing the stylesheet. The trouble is, on my PC (at work) the site looks just fine in Explorer. So I am at a loss. I know I haven’t...

6 October 2016: Putting this up purely for historical larfs. For me, del.icio.us went the way of all "free" services. I'm now a much happier camper paying for Pinboard.

I have taken the plunge and dived into del.icio.us. The problem was access to bookmarks. I have two desktop machines and a la...

At work on a Saturday, reflecting on the fact that when things here are at their busiest, I probably have most to say on the blog, but don't say it for two reasons. After an entire day processing words and staring at a screen, the last thing I want to do is more of the same. And then there is the qu...

A new strategy beats tit-for-tat at the Prisoners' Dilemma. Southampton University's approach was pretty sneaky, essentially allowing its prisoners to recognize one another and cooperate. Up against a non-Southampton opponent, prisoners deliberately throw their own chances to make life easier for...