The sun is sinking rapidly below the horizon, temperatures are plummeting in the gathering darkness, snow is falling and ice begins to embalm everything exposed to the extremes of winter. The Martian winter. And on the arctic plains of the...

Listening to, reading, watching, googling the news these days is a mindboggling task. It seems that, much of the time, we must put aside the ongoing stories of man’s barbarism to man, and focus on the global economic crisis, the...

I chose the title of this blog to enjoy the symbolism of all that is evoked by the image of a sandglass (or hourglass – but many of them run for periods other than an hour). If ever there was...

So, my first blog and my first post – an intimidating moment, and, obviously, one where I should try to set out the background and my aspirations. In the first instance, this is a blog about sand, and I can...