The headline this morning: “Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to more than 11 years for defrauding investors”. The case centred around her false claims that her technology could detect hundreds of diseases from a single drop of blood. The BBC reported, “Silicon Valley is a place where fortunes can be made and squandered. It’s not unusual for investorsContinue reading “Personal take on the Theranos Fraud”
Category Archives: Personal
Education through adversity
A different sort of pandemic blog post, and a rather personal one. There are problems reopening schools, universities are going virtual and post-graduates are struggling to complete. Education is having a hard time, and many students are rightly concerned about the impact this will have on their careers. If I was in this situation, I’dContinue reading “Education through adversity”
A scientific tightrope
The two most senior scientific advisors to the UK, Sir Patrick Vallance (Chief Scientific Advisor) and Professor Chris Whitty (Chief Medical Officer) have come into a lot of criticism recently for failing to say what they really believe regarding the Government’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak. As Civil Servants they are meant to be impartialContinue reading “A scientific tightrope”
Is Science Popular?
Scientists often despair at the general lack of scientific understanding by the general public. And to be fair, that understanding is not brilliant, evidenced by regular surveys. I have summarised a snapshot of a series of surveys from across the world below to illustrate the point. Percentage of people getting the right answer to aContinue reading “Is Science Popular?”
Old in a young age
The stereotype of people of my age is someone who, when asked to press “any key” on the computer, asks, “where’s the anykey”. I’m not like that. Although my children might smile when I claim to be technically savvy, I like technology and I’m generally the antithesis of a Luddite. Just recently, for example IContinue reading “Old in a young age”
Graham Lappin 