The Newton Channel

Today, the Guardian newspaper launched a promotion of the Newton Channel, a company that makes short films on science topics. Whilst the Newton Channel has been around for a while, this is the first time that I’ve come across it.

I’m rather looking forward to browsing through their catalogue, which has such eminent science stars as Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox and Marcus du Sautoy dealing with a variety of scientific topics.

I began with Marcus du Sautoy, whose exploration of the land of mathematics is always rewarding. And while this capsule on probability is good, I confess that I found the reference to Sally Clark rather superficial. Yes, du Sautoy pointed out the faulty statistics behind her conviction, but what was left unsaid was the human cost. Sally Clark is dead, almost certainly as a result of what she was put through. The cold equations have a human side that must not be forgotten.