Stromatolites at Shark Bay, Western Australia. Image by C Eeckhout (Wikimedia Commons).Photosynthesis is great. Plants (and some bacteria) use some CO₂, some H₂O, and a bit of sunlight to build themselves. The sunlight involved is mainly within the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum, especially around 430 nanometres (violet) and 660 nanometres (red). When I say “some bacteria”, I refer to cyanobacteria. These fabulous organisms are believed to have triggered a huge boost in early biodiversity when they started photosynthesising (about 3.5 billion years ago), absorbing CO₂ and releasing O₂. It looks like these guys have been keeping a pretty special secret. More . . .

My university botany lecturers at uni would probably be surprised to hear that any of their teaching had stuck in my mind, but some did. One enduring impression is that plants are very complex organisms and that humans probably don’t recognise the diversity of and precision of their survival mechanisms. Here’s some more evidence.

Smoking tobacco is not good for you. Chewing tobacco is also unwise, especially if you are a tobacco hornworm caterpillar. A quick nibble on a tasty tobacco leaf will trigger an emergency response from the tobacco plant that calls in some serious reinforcements. More . . .

Half-way through a 'Great Big Science Gig' tour, it's been great to have a day or so to catch my breath. After playing at 'Market of the Mind' on Friday night and brunching with Chris Smith from The Naked Scientists on Saturday morning, I woke this morning to read a really nice review by MarissaJade on Fasterlouder.com.au. Marrissa had been at our gig at The Front in Canberra last Thursday, which was loads of fun. You can read the whole review here.

When you tell someone that you're doing a science rock show, or science cabaret, most people are - understandably - bemused, confused or simply tuning out of the conversation. Reading Marissa's review confirmed again that it's not as silly as it sounds. As I often tell people, it makes more sense once you see it.

We're off to Burnie next, then UTS in Sydney, then the Gold Coast.

Sometimes things that take a long time somehow manage to creep up on you. Tax returns and Christmas are examples, as is ‘Great Big Science Gig’ (GBSG). Between all our other projects and commitments, we’ve been working on GBSG since the start of the year, but suddenly the tour is less than 2 weeks away.

We have new songs and demos and we’ll be exploring nanofiltration, exploding ants, brain development, spy seals and wireless electricity.

This year we’re very pleased to have a few new venues to the tour. This includes gigs at Front Gallery and Café in Canberra, the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel in Adelaide and the Glasshouse Bar at UTS (our first gig in Sydney for some years). We’re also doing a gig at ‘Market of the Mind’ in Melbourne.

Anyway, we’re getting excited and we hope to see you there!



Yesterday I went to see Inception and it was great. Time will tell whether it’s “an instant classic” as David Stratton suggested, but it was certainly lots of fun. Like many people, I am intrigued by the unconscious (and subconscious) mind, so if you’re one of those people, I recommend it. Fascination with the sleeping mind is what eventually led me to write Somnium.

In any case, Inception reminded about a recent article in Science (2 July 2010), suggesting that the unconscious mind might control our actions more than we give it credit for. Ruud Cus­ters and Henk Aarts of Utrecht Uni­vers­ity reviewed research examining the role of the unconscious mind in decision making and it makes for interesting reading. I don’t know whether Leonardo DiCaprio is actually affecting your thoughts, but if he wants to, your brain might have all the right software in place. More . . .