The fear of every writer is that they might one day become Lawrence Miles.

Charlie Brooker warns that the Germans are about to unleash another wave of inhumanity upon the world:

Here’s a news story guaranteed to provoke a fusillade of indignant spluttering, courtesy of your inner Clarkson: German politicians are reportedly planning to ban Kinder Surprise eggs on the grounds that they’re a safety hazard.

Charlie Brooker notes a little something about science in his latest Screen Burn:

Must be frustrating being a scientist. There you are, incrementally discovering how the universe works via a series of complex tests and experiments, for the benefit of all mankind - and what thanks do you get? People call you “egghead” or “boffin” or “heretic”, and they cave your face in with a rock and bury you out in the wilderness.

Oddly it’s a topic that I’ve encountered several times in the last fortnight. That is, the awkward divide between scientists - the people doing the work - and everyone else - who may or may not understand what the scientists are on about, and may or may not treat them as just another form of mystic. Robert Krulwich devoted an episode of Radiolab to his commencement speech at the California Institute of Technology in which he stressed the importance of a good story in communicating the incredibly complicated things that scientists do, in order to engage and attract the lay-person.