Attended another famous person's talk tonight. w00t! This time it's a non-scientist, for he started and ended his lecture right on time. It's none other than the author of A short history of nearly everything, fast becoming the most popular layman's science book and the preferred textbook for many a schoolchild-scientist-wannabe. The Chair said that he broke the record for having the most number of people who had to be turned away for a public lecture (these talks are on a first-come-first-serve basis), hehe.

Blurp from the Royal Society website:

"Bill Bryson, acclaimed author and winner of the 2004 Aventis Prize for Science Books , will talk about how, in his biggest book, he confronted his greatest challenge yet: to understand -and, if possible, answer - the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Bill will relay stories from his quest to find out such an array of strange and amazing facts which range from the moment of the Big Bang to the rise of civilisation."

His talk will soon be made available in the Royal Society's online video library.

Did you know that a tenth of the weight of the average-age pillow is composed of mites, mite dung, dead mites, and dead skin? Hahaa... not sure why, but that's the only thing I can remember from his talk at the mo. Oh, and the universe is very big. And... pah, go read his book!

posted by Husky @ 3/10/2005 11:46:00 PM  |