Dear subscribers,
It’s been a long and short summer, packed and hectic, with moments of rest and reflection. I hope you are able to reflect fondly on the last few months as we switch our radiators on.
Recently, I gave a keynote address at the Impact Festival in Scotland. Five universities come together to discuss how they can maximise the real-life impact of their scientific research. One of the topics I touched on was Time. I keep hearing (and feeling) how we’re time-starved, and so I reminded the audience that time is a concept manufactured by humans.
In ancient Egypt, the day and night were each divided into 12 sections, so in the summer, hours during the day were longer than hours at night. In medieval times, we created clock towers that lost accuracy in the hours each week. In the 18th century, we used more precise technology - pendulums - and thus created seconds. Today, we are measuring time in tiny fractions of a second.
I encourage you to consider, what sort of clock are you? Are you one who roughly follows day/night cycles to get your stuff done at your own pace, or do you count your days in minutes? Perhaps, take a pause, and recalibrate. After all, clock and watch owners through history have had to do that, sometimes multiple times a day.
Seven Small Inventions that Changed the World is out! Published on 29 August, this is the children’s version of Nuts and Bolts, and it covers the most fundamental inventions without which our modern world wouldn’t exist. Vividly illustrated by Jisu Choi, it’s a fun book that you can dip in and out of with your younglings.
As always, your orders and reviews support my work and enable me to keep doing what I do.
Have a peaceful Autumn.
Roma