Someone has just pointed me to a YouTube video called "The Undercover Scientist." The lyrics are
surprisingly appropriate... If we ever make a TV show from The Undercover Scientist book,
this would make excellent title music!
Life can be ironic sometimes. Having written The Undercover Scientist, Investigating Everyday
Mishaps which includes a whole section on how hard disks fail, and how you should ensure
they are always backed up... my hard disk failed and it wasn't backed up recently.
It did give me a chance to test the remedies I gave in the book first hand. In the book I
reported the suggestions of others in this situation - lightly hitting with a hammer, cooling in
freezer... but would any of these work for me? My disk had died so thoroughly it even prevented
the computer from booting up when connected normally. Instead I removed it, created a fresh
operating system install on a new disk, then linked the dead one to the computer via a USB
interface. It took a tap with a screwdriver to unstick the heads and make it seek again. Using Data
Rescue II software I was able to trawl the surface of the disk and see my data. But only sometimes
- if the disk got too hot, it failed again. This was a problem because the software needed to try
and access the disk continuously for many hours, which makes it hot. I had no fans, but if I put
something frozen right next to it, then it became too cold and also failed again. Through trial and
error, I discovered that putting the hard disk on a steel electrical socket installation box provided
a good heat sink and air gap, then placing the box onto a slice of frozen pineapple (wrapped in
clingfilm) provided the perfect natural cooling. Each slice lasted about 2 hours. Half a pineapple
later and all my data was successfully retrieved.
Another day and another contract, this time for Portugal. We're all very excited by the
international interest in The Undercover Scientist (or The Science of Mishaps as
it may be called in some countries). Do the twin themes of mishaps and science apply across all
cultures? Looks like it so far. The list of publishers to date includes:
An eagle-eyed ex-engineer has spotted a dodgy explanation in The Undercover
Scientist. I trust this reader, for it's my Dad:
On pages 57 and 58 of the Undercover Scientist you refer to
pistons connected to a camshaft. I think you meant crankshaft. The cams are the lozenge shaped
bumps on the camshaft which operate the engine valves.
Yes, we somehow all managed to miss this one. The book should read: "Each push on the
rim is a linear motion, and that is converted into a rotary motion by the hoop. Connect a piston to
a crankpin (often connected to a crankshaft) and the piston rotates the crankpin, pushing it round
and round." and later "Nevertheless, the principles of the engine remain exactly the same: fuel
and air is injected into the cylinders and is ignited by sparks (produced by the spark plugs), the
resulting pressure from the explosion moves the pistons, which pushes the crankshaft around,
and through a series of gears, makes the wheels turn."
Future editions (and foreign versions) will have this amendment... Thanks Dad.
When I wrote The Undercover Scientist I (perhaps naively) never thought in a million
years I would get questions like this... But today I did. Here's how I responded (part 1).
1) Ordinary people have long known that computers crash
on deadline and cars break down in emergencies, while previous studies have shown the law, also
called Sod's Law, is not a myth and toast really does fall buttered side down. But in 2004 a panel
of experts (David Lewis, matematico Philip Obadya e Keelan Leyser) has provided the statistical
rule for predicting the law of "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" - or ((U+C+I) x (10-
S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10)).
So, do you think it is possible to break Murphy's Law?
The Undercover Scientist is about those everyday mishaps that happen without blame or
fault. I use each mishap to open the door to scientific principles that explain our behaviour and
the technology we use. I'm afraid there is no sound scientific evidence that shows Sod's Law or
Murphy's Law is anything more than a misconception - toast does not have a tendency to fall in
the way we do not want it to. Sometimes things go wrong when we're stressed and working to a
tight deadline, but this is because we make mistakes and we inadvertently stress our technology
until it fails - there are lots of examples of this in the book. However, there is certainly evidence
to show that if you believe in such "laws" and your behaviour is affected by your own superstitious
beliefs then the result will be as though such laws exist. Your superstitious beliefs cause you to
act differently from normal and cause the very mishaps you are afraid of. Thus Murphy's Law is
nothing more than a construct in your own mind - to break it, just don't believe in it.
2) Why do you chose this topic?
I am a scientist who is trying to show how exciting and interesting science really is. The
whole purpose of the book is to show there is always a rational (and often fascinating, fun and
exciting) explanation for all the everyday events that happen to us. It shows that superstition
really has nothing to do with misfortune. What really counts is the physics, chemistry, biology that
underlies us and our technology.
3) "Fortune is blind, but bad luck has perfect eyesight". Is
it true?
It is only true if you make it so for yourself. Personally I am a strong believer that we
make our own luck - if you want something good to happen, then push for it; if something
happens that you don't like, then turn it into something positive by learning from it. Again, this is
what The Undercover Scientist does - it provides fascinating and entertaining new knowledge
from mishaps.
When I wrote The Undercover Scientist I (perhaps naively) never thought in a million
years I would get questions like this... But today I did. Here's how I responded (part 2).
4) Are you supersticious?
No. I am a scientist, so I require real evidence that something causes something
else.
When you apply the scientific method to most superstitions you find very little of substance.
There are one or two exceptions - for example, walking under a ladder is, I suspect, more
likely
to expose you to danger of being hit by falling objects. But most are bad correlations
between
cause and effect that do not bear scrutiny. It is human nature to try and link one event with
another, but science helps us discover what is really true and what is wishful thinking.
5) The Undercover Scientist has all the answers.... Now
that
you give to the people a scientific vision of the everyday mishaps…so the badluck exist?
Sometimes things don't go the way we want them to. You can call it bad luck, but
this is
life. We are often the cause of our own misfortune; sometimes it is random chance;
sometimes it
is caused by the malicious activities of a third party. But there is no mystical concept of luck
- you
cannot keep a bottle of good luck to drink when you're upset. If you want better luck, then
you
need to alter your own behaviour. The Undercover Scientist doesn't have all the answers (it
would
have to be a bigger book), but it does explain a huge number of interesting things that
affect us
and our technology, helping us to recover if things do go wrong, and helping to suggest
ways of
preventing future mishaps.
I had lunch with an editor a couple of years ago and we talked about marketing of books. He
told me
that in the UK two of the most influential people are Richard and Judy - presenters of a TV
show that
features a book club. While rather disappointing to hear that TV has such power over the
world
of
books, I was flattered to receive a call from the producer of Richard and Judy this week. I
don't
suppose I'll make it onto their show (not sure how popular scientists are for such things) but
it was
nice that The Undercover Scientist generated this interest before it's even hit the
shelves.
One advantage of writing popular science is that I get asked to do some fun things. On 8
June 2007 I was one of the speakers in the "You, Robot?" debate in Cheltenham Town Hall,
at
the Cheltenham Science Festival (with Lola Cañamero and chaired by Mark Miodownik). The
title was
me tipping my hat to Asimov, of course. In addition to sharing a VIP room with all kinds of
famous
"TV scientists" which was fun, UCL decided they would stick my image on the homepage for
the
entire university for a few weeks. Yikes!
