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Month: December 2015

The Star of Bethlehem

The Star of Bethlehem

Published on 23rd December 2015

Ah, Christmas. The joyous time of year where families come together and celebrate the birth of Christ.

As we approach Christmas, I recently went to a Church service with the family and the story of Jesus was told, including the Wise Men that followed the Star of Bethlehem to find the baby Jesus. As an astrophysicist, I have often wondered about the Star of Bethlehem, and what it could have been. Was it an astronomical event, or was it a sign from God?  So, as always, I did some research.

Everybody knows the story of the Star of Bethlehem. When Christ was born, three wise men were guided by a bright star in the sky, which led them to the stable in which Jesus was born. They saw the star, and deemed it a sign, followed it and found their savior resting directly under the star.

I have always wondered “Was it actually a really bright star, or was it something else entirely?”

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The Science of Spicy

The Science of Spicy

Published on 11th December 2015

Spicy foods. Not spicy enough is a bit disappointing. Too much spice and you can’t taste anything through the pain. But what causes that pain?

 

At my old job, the design team and the code monkeys went to the South Bank market every Friday for lunch. In this market there were so many stalls selling all kinds of food, and everything was so delicious! My favourite stall, however, was the Korean Burrito stall, where they had salad boxes, rice boxes and burritos with the choice of three meats: pork, beef or spicy chicken. And after someone highly recommended the chicken, I went for the chicken thinking “It can’t be that spicy”. Boy, was I wrong!

It was so spicy, but at the same time, so delicious that, call me crazy but, I got it again the next time I went. And yes, it was still really spicy, but it still tasted gorgeous!

But getting back to the point of this post, having all this spicy food made me wonder why does spicy food set your mouth on fire, even if it isn’t physically hot? And why is it sometimes painfully spicy? Well, as always, I did some research.

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My Writing Process

My Writing Process

Published on 3rd December 2015

Someone I know wrote an article for a website about why and how she writes, and after reading it, I thought about why and how I write. Here are my findings.

 

A colleague of mine once asked me, over a drink at a company do, “So, why do you write, then?” and I simply replied “Because the voices tell me to,”. Needless to say, his face was a picture!

But now I realise that if we replace “voices” with “story” and “tell” with “need” and you actually have a partial answer. The story needs me to. It needs to be told. If I bottled up all the potential stories in my head, then I reckon I would be cracked even more than I already am!

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