Month: August 2026

‘Scholar, musician, bon viveur, humorist, in some ways a swashbuckler’ were all descriptions of pioneering scientist William Astbury by his friend and colleague R.D. Preston. But a new accolade can now be added to Preston’s list. Having gone along to (what rather unexpectedly) turned out to be final day of Test Match against Pakistan on Friday, I had cause to celebrate not only an England victory, but also the discovery that commemorative plaque on Astbury’s former home on Kirkstall Lane opposite Len Hutton gates of the world famous cricket ground Yorkshire County Cricket Club, is now an official ‘Pokestop’ in online Pokemon Go game! Great way of bringing history of science to a wider audience – Thanks to Ian Jackson for bringing this historical gem to my attention!

Very much looking forward to speaking with my co-author Ralf Dahm about our new book ‘The Dawn Fisherman’ telling story of discovery of DNA – but also to hearing Adrian Woolfson immediately afterwards talking about what the advent of AI means for DNA technology in his cracking new book ‘On the Future of Species’ in an autumnal afternoon double-bill of science on Sat 10th Oct at this year’s Ilkley Literature Festival… #ilkleylitfest

Felt like Christmas Day come early when I opened this package from publishers SpringerNature last week. A big thanks to all involved – particularly my co-author Ralf Dahm and our editor Frida Trotter, Ph.D without whom ‘Dawn Fisherman’ would never have become a reality. (Quite possibly the only book about the DNA story to also feature a reference to TV shows ‘The Great British Bake-Off’ & ‘Battlestar Galactica’, as well as including an attempt at a cartoon style flick-book animation of Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the double-helical coils of DNA. That’s got to be a first, surely?)