The UK General Election is set for 6th May 2010 and the main parties have all now launched their manifestos.

But, how does Science, Engineering & Technology feature in their plans?

CaSE

In their blog, CaSE (Campaign for Science and Engineering in the UK) http://blog.sciencecampaign.org.uk try to compare their respective policies to let you see at a glance the party politics as far as the future of science in the UK is concerned.

Who will get the #SciVote – follow the comment and conversation on Twitter?

Skeptical Voter

Also worth checking out and assisting with, where you can in their wiki, is the ‘Skeptical Voter’ site: http://skeptical-voter.org/ . Skeptical Voter intends to identify which parliamentary candidates embrace the use of evidence as a means to inform their decisions and which prefer to obfuscate, ignore or suppress the evidence for political convenience.

It can be quite an eye-opener to see what your local candidates believe in; hopefully it will make you think twice before putting a cross on your ballot paper.

You can also follow @skepticalvoter on Twitter

Vote Match

If you don’t particularly fancy wading your way through all the manifestos, spin and tit-for-tat politics, then there is further help at hand! Vote Match lets you easily discover with which parties agree with your views by answering a series of questions – it takes only 5 minutes and it’s a very clear and useful tool. Try it out: http://www.votematch.org.uk/index.php

Full Party Manifestos

If you do want to dig into the manifestos – look no further! Below are direct links to the main party manifestos – both for the UK and Scotland, where some issues are devolved.

Most of the links below will take you to a page where it’s quite obvious how to read or download the manifesto. Others link directly to a .pdf file.

They are in no particular order and of course there are other parties and independents to consider depending on where you live. Happy reading!

Conservative

http://media.conservatives.s3.amazonaws.com/manifesto/cpmanifesto2010_hires.pdf

Conservative (Scotland)

http://www.scottishconservatives.com/policy/manifesto

Green Party

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/policies.html

Scottish Green Party

http://www.scottishgreens.org.uk/uploaded/Wesminster2010.pdf

Labour

http://www2.labour.org.uk/uploads/TheLabourPartyManifesto-2010.pdf

Labour (Scotland)

http://www.scottishlabour.org.uk/manifesto

Liberal Democrats

http://www.libdems.org.uk/our_manifesto.aspx

Liberal Democrats (Scotland)

http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/manifesto

Scottish National Party

http://www.snp.org/manifestos/westminster/2010

Plaid Cymru

http://www.plaidcymru.org/content.php?nID=44;catID=7;pubID=264;lID=1

It promises to be an epic exploration of hundreds of years of scientific developments presented by Michael Mosley; a revealing insight into the principles it’s founded upon, the astonishing advances that have gotten us to the present day and the fear it often brings when misunderstood.

Michael, a former doctor, and co-author, John Lynch - the executive producer of the BBC’s international hit ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’, take us on a joined-up journey through the history science from it’s beginnings to where we are today in the accompanying hardback which is on sale now.

Expect “The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion” to be available on a 2 disc, DVD from 16th June 2010 with a total runtime of 360 minutes.

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

At 02:00 local time on Sunday 28th March 2010, in many places around the Northern Hemisphere, the clocks spring forward to 03:00, as daylight saving time (DST) is observed.

In the UK, this practice takes place on the last Sunday in March, taking us into something called British Summer Time (BST). So at 01:00 GMT, we move to 02:00 BST.

Typically, the clocks are ‘wound’ back in the autumn, although, when exactly, varies greatly around the globe.

On the last Sunday in October, those in the UK, put our clocks back one hour and adhere to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). So, at 02:00 BST, we move back to 01:00 GMT.

The result is that we ‘gain’ an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon - ideal for those who enjoy outdoor leisurely pursuits in the evenings and for retail, however, as we ‘lose’ an hour of daylight in the morning, farming, for example, is severely affected by the practice.

In the UK, we’ve been doing this since 1916, and it seems that every year since, the controversial shifting of time make the news headlines.

It’s controversial as there’s no clear evidence that it does save energy, as was the initial intention; Most people were still sleeping whilst the Sun had been in the sky for hours in the morning; and by being able to keep street lights off in the early evening an opportunity was spotted to save money and fuel.

There’s a wonderful piece called “Spring Forward: 100 Years of British Summer Time” on the National Maritime Museum website.

But, nowadays in the 24/7 society in which we live, the success of those original noble intentions to save cash and energy seem to be becoming less clear as energy usage shifts and sleep and work patterns alter.

There’s also health and public safety issues to take into account too. Those suffering from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), regularly starts kicking-in for anything up to 1 in 20 people in the UK come the time to switch back to GMT. Is there any change in patterns of crime, or road traffic accidents? The current research seems inconclusive.

It’s not the first time the WWF (World Wildlife Fund for Nature) has motivated the population of the planet to rally to the cause of showing they care about climate change; in fact, it’s the fourth time; and it’s grown substantially in size and impact since just over 2 million flicked the switch in Sydney, Australia back in 2007.

125 countries are represented so far in the tremendous global effort taking place this year, with non-essential lighting being turned off for 1 hour in entire cities such as Rio De Janeiro, Paris, Oslo, Seoul, Delhi and even the Las Vegas strip!

Some of the World’s most famous landmarks will take part, from the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Colosseum in Rome; the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt to the Forbidden City in Beijing, China.

Individuals, organisations and communities can all make a substantial contribution.

If you want to join in you can sign up here.

There’s even a small element of competition between counties in the UK.

The Earth Hour website also has ideas for things to do in the dark, including light writing.

Become a fan on the Earth Hour UK Facebook page.

You can follow WWF_UK on Twitter and view the rest of their videos on their Youtube page.

Monday to Friday: 9.00 to 5.00. The standard working week for many in the modernised world, where if you’re not in the rat-race putting in 5 or more days a week of work, you’re probably one of the few.

But, maybe it’s time to buck the trend towards ‘living to work’ and moving back to something more like ‘working to live’. Are we really as productive as we might have ourselves believe: at the coal-face for the best part of our weekly lives? Are we healthier, wealthier citizens because of this drive to just keep working, longer and longer hours… cause, well, just cause our employers think it’s best for the success of the company. What if it’s not, or even worse, perhaps to the detriment of the company’s success and employee’s health and well-being?

Why is it we’ve fallen into this pattern of working 5 days in a row and only having 48 hours to enjoy for ourselves and spend quality time with our family and friends? Was it all Henry Ford’s fault!?

Imagine, having three days off in a row, every week: How refreshed you would feel; How much more productive you’d be when you come back to work; How healthier and happier you’d be; The benefits to society as parents have more time to spend with their children as they grow; The reduction in traffic, pollution, and stress.

I wonder if there are any studies into the impact of working 5 or more days; and equally, any into the impact of working less; both for individuals, businesses and the general good of society?

*Updated* Just discovered a report by the New Economics Foundation, the UK’s leading independent think tank, who suggest a shift to a 21 hour working week could be likely and beneficial in a study published on 13th February 2010.

You can find out more and read the nef report here.

I’m trying to get to a grip on what the difference is between ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’. Maybe it’s silly question, but it’s one that keeps coming to mind when reading about issues of health and well-being, the environment and phenomena we experience, for example.

You see, as I understand it, the word ‘natural’ is often used to describe each of those examples in some sort of ideological way without them having been influenced by human-kind.

So, herbalists will, for example, say that taking certain plant-based concoctions are a ‘natural’ way to heal your body and stay in tune with the Earth.

The natural environment is often regarded as being the ‘un-spoilt’ wilderness, where wild animals reign and there is some mystical kind of balance between all the elements from the innate to the alive.

Phenomena such as lightning, hurricanes and earthquakes might be spectacular, devastating, or even beyond our full comprehension, but we’re content to say these are ‘natural’.

But, my problem, I guess, is that humans as a product of our environment are surely by definition… ‘natural’ too? Why then is it that those things humans do are said to be ‘unnatural’? Why do we strive so hard to differentiate between those things we find in our local environment and those things that are man-made?

Perhaps the problem is we, as humans, tend to think rather highly of ourselves. We put ourselves above all other forms of life for a start-off; even going as far to say we as humans stand alone; above the other members of the animal kingdom on our planet; even though we are all products of our ‘natural’ environment. On reflection, this is quite natural for us to do. As would be to do the opposite. Or to think we’re somewhere in-between, or indeed something all together completely different!

Some elements of our population get so heated about pharmaceutical companies taking the parts of plants we’ve discovered through trial and refinement can be effective in treating illnesses and replicating them. They say this is unnatural. But why?

Man impacts on the environment with our buildings, farming, and our waste. We should probably think very carefully about how we do this: for our own sake if not the environment, but all things found in nature impact on the environment to a lesser or greater extent too.

We are gradually becoming more aware of how and when hurricanes might hit; predict with more accuracy when earthquakes might rip apart the ground under our feet; or, even being able to understand the way in which lightning is formed and maybe being able to harness those bolts of electrical energy. Should it be that if we were to replicate the awesome power of these phenomena that the instances we create would then be described as ‘unnatural’. I’d be quite uncomfortable with that distinction.

In this Universe (or perhaps multi-verse) in which we are just fairly insignificant observers and only get to briefly interact with, why is it we get in such a twist about taking the things that we find and making new, and occasionally improved or more useful things? Surely, these improvements are ‘natural’ too? All the bits that make them up were provided by nature. Humans, as products of nature, put them together within the bounds of nature and they then exist in nature.

So, it seems for me that there is no use for the word ‘unnatural’. It defies explanation by its very nature.

Can anyone recommend some good books for beginners in philosophy!?

Sense About Science have produced an excellent document that explains the background to homeopathy and why at best for some very few minor ailments it does no better than have a placebo effect.

Download the Sense About Homeopathy .pdf here: Sense About Homeopathy

Step into the frame, Merseyside Skeptics Society: a non-profit organisation for the promotion of scientific scepticism who have been behind the launch of the 10:23 Campaign. The campaign aims to highlight just how in-effective homeopathic remedies are by organising a mass overdose on Saturday, 30th January at 10:23 outside Boots the Chemist in various cities across the UK.

In addition to the mass overdose, they’d like you to take part in signing an open letter to Boots, to try persuade them to see sense and pull these sugar pills off their shelves. You can also sign-up on the petition to get the PM to instruct the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to evaluate whether it is appropriate for the NHS to fund homeopathy – apparently to the tune of £4million per year!

They’ve produced an excellent website: www.1023.org.uk that details more on why we can confidently say “Homeopathy – there’s nothing in it!”

Follow the 10:23 Campaign on Twitter http://twitter.com/ten23 and with the hashtag #ten23

• Christmas, wouldn’t be Christmas without the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures! This year (2009), they’re being aired first on More4, every day at 7pm from Monday 21st through Friday 25th December.

  ‘The 300 Million Year War’ will be presented by Prof Sue Hartley and focuses on the fascinating battle between plants and animals.

  You can get interactive this year too, through Twitter - use the hashtag #xmaslecture in your tweets to ask questions after the shows.

  You can access More4 on Freeview Channel 14, Freesat Channel 124, Sky Digital Channel 138 and Virgin Media Channel 145. You will also be able to watch the lectures whenever you want on the Channel 4 website.

  For more info on the history of the RI Christmas Lectures visit their website!

• ‘The Star of Bethlehem‘ is another one to watch on December 25th. It starts at 11.30am on BBC Two and investigates whether or not real astronomical events could explain the story behind what the maji were thought to have witnessed in viewing ‘the Star of Bethlehem’.

• On the 30th December, Chris Packham, Kate Humble and Simon King look back at 2009 in ‘Springwatch Christmas Special‘. Relive some of the best moments of the popular series that captures on camera the behaviour of UK wildlife. It’s on BBC Two at 18:30 (England, NI and Wales) and at 19:30 (in Scotland).

• Astronomer, Sir Patrick Moore takes us on a tour of the winter night sky, early morning on January 4th. Tune in to BBC One at 00.40am for ‘The Sky Tonight - Twinkle Twinkle‘.