Blog

A list of all the articles published on this site

  • Maximum Variety

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    “Plenty of Plants, Not Much Meat, and Maximum Variety” is Colin’s maxim for a healthy diet. What does Maximum Variety look like and why does it matter?

  • Is politics more than a distraction?

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    Asks Colin tudge May 6: A good day for the Lib Dems and the Greens in the local elections yesterday. Not bad though less than decisive for Labour. A bad day for the Tories, though not as bad as they deserve. After Cameron the spiv, May the interregnum, Boris the malignant clown, Truss the star…

  • Never mind the evidence – feel the ideology!

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    It’s not economic “growth” that matters, says Colin Tudge. It’s equality  Lest we thought the madness of Trussonomics had disappeared with her own assisted abdication a senior Tory MP popped up on Channel 4 News to tell us once more (a) that the only way to solve Britain’s mounting problems is by economic growth, apparently…

  • The importance of being idle

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    In a brief but brilliant soap-box speech (albeit delivered from a Paris balcony), and in the midst of on-going strikes, Jean-Luc Melenchon** argued that the present-day economy and the politics and mindset behind them are, quite simply, mad. We are all of us obliged to work harder and harder in effect to stay in the…

  • Should we all turn vegetarian?

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    Perhaps in a perfect world we should all be vegetarian – or indeed vegan. But, says Colin Tudge, this isn’t a perfect world and a low-meat diet served by agroecological farming is probably the best that we should aim for  Rumour has it that Oxford City Council, following the County Council’s lead of two years…

  • Easter Spices

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    Our homogenized food distribution network shows no respect for our food culture or regional specialities. Throw out your mixed spice and flavour your Easter baking with care.

  • The world beneath our feet

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    Colin Tudge reflects upon Bruce Ball’s latest book, Healing Soil Truly the things we take for granted – like the Earth, and indeed life — are the most wondrous. Nothing is more taken for granted — and routinely abused — than soil; and yet, as Bruce Ball illustrates in his latest book, Healing Soil, the…

  • The absolute importance of “Cryptonutrients” and why “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”

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    The following – based on a on a lecture I gave in 1999 at the Royal Society no less – is an example of a “paradigm shift”: one that is now taking the science of nutrition into the realms of microbiology and evolutionary biology.

  • Who are the real friends of science?

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    Science is indeed wondrous but it has limitations – which, as Sir Paul Nurse demonstrated in a popular and doubtless influential article published in 2021, are not always recognized by some of its most adept practitioners.

  • What will be the message of British Science Week?

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    British Science Week is celebrating science – which indeed we ought to do. But, says Colin Tudge, we must discuss the caveats too.