Pendulums and the Mascarenes
In 1819, between the 19th and 25th of May, Louis de Freycinet, with the help of some of his officers from the corvette Uranie, used pendulums to measure gravity in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius.
The hope of rescue
200 years ago, it was the approach of winter that was to give the castaways from the Uranie their first sight of a potential rescuer, because was that which was driving the whaling and sealing fleets north
COVID-19
What we are now learning to call Covid-19 is taking an ever tighter grip on the world. In every country, as cases of the disease are recognised, government intervention increases. What would Ayn Rand have made of it all?
Climate of suspicion
Scepticism is great, and vitally important in any science, but when science itself is under attack, anyone who claims to be a scientist needs to stand up and defend it.
Ayn Rand and the floods
The water level in the River Lugg, a couple of hundred metres away, is now falling. Four days ago it was three to four metres above normal ….
The wreck of the Uranie
Exactly 200 years ago, on 14 February 1820, the French corvette Uranie, captained by Louis de Freycinet and with his wife illegally on board, struck a submerged rock and was wrecked on the uninhabited Falkland Islands.