He set out from his home in Orkney when he was just nineteen, a newly qualified medical graduate, off to Hudson’s Bay to try a summer, but it was fourteen years before he could return – as a seasoned explorer with the company rank of chief trader; and later he would rise further yet, to [...]
Warm and human, first and foremost interested in people, a fantastically popular lecturer, a profound thinker, a man who pushed at the margins of ideas, and an indefatigable story teller. These were some of the descriptions of the late Professor Archie Roy that were given at his memorial service in Glasgow University Chapel on 14 [...]
Two hundred years ago in May a Great Auk was killed at Fowl Craig on Papa Westray. By this stage the Great Auk, a large flightless seabird of the North Atlantic closely related to the Razorbill, had been largely decimated at its main breeding colonies. It only survived in small numbers at sea, and depended [...]
Suppose that you’re in Cambodia and want to sell a surplus steam turbine; or in Chile and needing to source a diesel generator. Or you may be in Malaysia and negotiating to buy a power barge from Kenya and you need an independent valuation. The man who can help you is based in an office [...]
March 25 is the 75th anniversary of one of the most baffling mysteries in science – the disappearance of the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana, at the age of 31. The story is one which has intrigued and mystified quantum scientists for 75 years. In fact it is almost as if Majorana personified a great part [...]
He set out from his home in Orkney when he was just nineteen, a newly qualified medical graduate, off to Hudson’s Bay to try a summer, but it was fourteen... Read more →
Eoin Scott, the chairman of Orkney Science Festival, who died on 5 June 2013, was someone who was at the very heart of Orkney life, with his farm and his... Read more →
March 25 is the 75th anniversary of one of the most baffling mysteries in science – the disappearance of the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana, at the age of 31. The... Read more →
Warm and human, first and foremost interested in people, a fantastically popular lecturer, a profound thinker, a man who pushed at the margins of ideas, and an indefatigable story teller.... Read more →
Two hundred years ago in May a Great Auk was killed at Fowl Craig on Papa Westray. By this stage the Great Auk, a large flightless seabird of the North... Read more →
Suppose that you’re in Cambodia and want to sell a surplus steam turbine; or in Chile and needing to source a diesel generator. Or you may be in Malaysia and... Read more →
A piece of Mars is coming to Orkney for this year’s Orkney International Science Festival. It is a little piece of a meteorite whose structure shows that it was once... Read more →
They don’t get a whole lot of tourists in Repulse Bay. It is not that they don’t deserve them; the natural environment is beautiful and special. However, at the very... Read more →
An old Orkney legend may carry a hint of the rising sea. It tells of Orkneymen visiting Norway and meeting there an old woman from Orkney who inquires about the... Read more →
When I first encountered the Kogi, it was a quite extraordinary surprise. I was trying to research a film about the Lost City, the ruins of a large Tairona settlement... Read more →
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