Author Archives: John Pullen

Some people are born with a brain disorder known as Chari Malformation Type 1. It is recognised by the brain, pushing the skull outwards. This is seen as a bulge at the rear of the skull. It was diagnosed in the nineteenth century by an Austrian pathologist, Hans Chari. It was first thought that itContinue reading “Can Neanderthals Cure a Brain Disorder?”

Here is a question. What lasts 86,400 seconds? Before you start to divide out this number to find the number of minutes and then hours, let me save you the trouble. It equates to 24 hours, the length of one complete day, and the time it takes the Earth to make one full rotation. ForContinue reading “The Earth is in a Spin”

In the previous article, we saw how the length of a telomere can help dictate how long your cells can be protected by replication throughout your life. One area of research into anti-ageing is using a substance called psilocybin. It might be better known as the active ingredient in the psychedelic plant called “magic mushrooms”.Continue reading “The Magic of Ageing Part II”

First, a warning. The next two articles are about early research into ageing and should not be attempted to copy it in any way. We all age. Some are okay with it, while others are not so happy about getting old. This may sound like a strange question, but what is ageing? It is moreContinue reading “The Magic of Ageing Part I”

The title of this article does not mean that by checking your teeth, you can prove you are related to Aunty Maud or Uncle Fred. What it does mean is that small pits found in the teeth of a prehistoric human species may indicate which of these diverse sets of early humans were more closelyContinue reading “Your Teeth May Reveal Your Relatives”

Our solar system currently has 8 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. If some of you ask, “Where is Pluto?” you may remember that around 20 years ago, it was demoted to dwarf planet status. If you are unhappy about this, I do have some sympathy for you. However, this isContinue reading “Does Planet Nine Exist?”

How well do we know ourselves? Of course, we, as a species, are a very complicated subject. But there are several fundamental questions about who we are, why we look different and whether we are still evolving? Let’s try to shed some light on these questions. Most of us are aware of Charles Darwin’s workContinue reading “All About You”

Do not get worried that the Mars rover, Curiosity, has found giant spiders on the Red Planet or that David Bowie was right when he produced his album, “Spider From Mars”. Instead, it refers to a pretty interesting step forward in the search for past life on Mars. What Curiosity has found has been describedContinue reading “Mars Rover Discovers “Spiders From Mars””

We all know that boomerangs originate in Australia and were invented and used by the Aboriginal people probably thousands of years ago. But, do we? Several years ago, two that appear to be a pair of boomerangs were discovered not in Australia, but in Poland, Europe. And they were not made of wood but outContinue reading “A Mammoth of a Boomerang”

It is a question with no exact answer. In a personal capacity, in my days as a writer and director of non-fiction films and live shows, I had to link up the head of Egyptology at the British Museum in London to Cairo, the capital of Egypt. This was a worldwide celebration of the newContinue reading “How Old is Egypt?”