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In everyday speech, backwards is bad. Metaphorically, the word gets used to mean wrong, or perverted, or made nonsensical. But in reality, people and things are moving and turning backwards all the time. If you…

The expression "hindsight is 20/20" might be a nice metaphor for the clarity of events after the fact, but it's certainly not a literal truth - looking back, our vision is often more restricted than…

I've been playing a neat little computer game lately. Essentially the premise is that the players have to work together to defuse a bomb. The bomb has all of these tricky little modules on it,…

In 2004, a group of physicists at New York's Rochester University published a paper about what they called "light's most exotic trick yet". They managed to send a pulse of light through a specially-doped optic…

An interesting flaw in the VicRoads Hazard Perception Test is that the setup excludes mirrors and focuses entirely on hazards that can be seen by looking at the road ahead (and the footpath on either…

The science of perception is a fascinating field. Humans are constantly "seeing" things that they technically are unable to physically see. We synthesise different colours of light into blends, see depth in two-dimensional paintings, and…

As someone who's tried both, the difference between glasses and contact lenses is distinctive in many ways. One of the core differences is that contact lenses - unlike glasses - also enhance your peripheral vision.…

One of the strange elements of a lot of science fiction is that entire planets seem to have single environments. You have desert planets, jungle planets, snow planets, and so on. Of course, Earth is…

Many a comedian has remarked upon the logistical nightmare that Christmas must present to Santa Claus. Just how can one man, with one sleigh, travel all around the world and deliver presents to billions of…

Animals are among our most treasured companions, so much so that the old proverb claims that “a dog is a man’s best friend”. We want to share in so many of life’s joys with our…

All forms of travel require safety considerations. Naturally, these vary from person to person. If you're walking, then you don't need much safety equipment, though sometimes articles such as a sunhat or umbrella might prove…

In the past few decades, we've become familiar with the sight of cameras everywhere. They used to be a special-purpose device, used for taking photographs or film, and only taken somewhere to be specifically used…