During the February half term break, I took my son to the Hayward gallery to see the new Martin Creed show. The highlight of the exhibition is a space in which 20 people are squeezed into a small room…
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New analysis of the ethnic diversity of both university students and the academics in charge of their education has revealed wide disparities in ethnic representation compared to UK population averages…
Finding liquid water on a celestial body within the solar system is exciting. The only thing that is probably more exciting is finding an ocean full of it. Today such news comes via Cassini, which has…
Zebras’ stripes have baffled biologists since Charles Darwin. Many hypotheses have been proposed regarding their purpose but, despite hundreds of years of study, there remains disagreement. In an attempt…
It is said that if you listen carefully on the shores of Aberdyfi in northwest Wales you can hear the bells of the drowned church of Maes Gwyddno ringing a sad lament beneath the waves. Such tales suggest…
The worst time to be alive in Earth’s history is unarguably the end-Permian, about 250 million years ago. It is the period when the greatest-ever extinction event recorded took place, killing 97% of all…
There is some controversy about what we mean by the word “hacker”. Historically, and as far back as the 1960s, a hacker was someone who was an expert programmer. But today, it is a word generally used…
A new, planet-like body has been found on the outer edges of the solar system. This object, called 2012VP113, is the second body of its class found since the identification of the dwarf planet Sedna in…
Economists at the University of Warwick have found happiness increases productivity by around 12%. Andrew Oswald, Eugenio Proto and Daniel Sgroi carried out a number of experiments to test the idea that…
The founder of free online learning platform edX, set up by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has spoken out against the US State department’s decision to block people in Iran…
Nearly 13m more adults in the US will be eligible for statins after new guidelines widened the criteria for use of the drugs to treat high cholesterol and prevent heart attacks and strokes. Using data…
The UK is investing less on research and development across both the public and private sectors and remains behind Europe on the proportion of its GDP spent on research, prompting leading academics to…
A US heart researcher looks set to inflame an argument over saturated fats. It has long been a health mantra that too much saturated fat like cheese and butter contributes to higher cholesterol and an…
The report released jointly by the Royal Society in the UK and the US National Academy of Sciences provides a guide to current climate change science for a non-scientific audience. In this respect it is…
Despite prolonged combat missions and a bigger than expected death toll in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers are a resilient bunch when it comes to mental health – and especially those in elite…
Hospitals where nurses are qualified to bachelor’s degree level and have lower patient-to-nurse ratios have lower mortality rates. In a cross-European study published in The Lancet, researchers found every…
A health crisis in Greece brought on by national austerity measures has driven up cases of HIV, suicide, major depression, and infant death, and left hundreds of thousands locked out the health system…
New research reveals most Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK were unaffected by the “transitional controls” in place until the start of this year. According to much of the media, these controls…
Facebook has just acquired the mobile messenger service WhatsApp for US$19 billion. Launched in 2009 by two former Yahoo employees, in just over four years WhatsApp has grown to 420m monthly users. Why…
Scientists have developed a new chemical they claim can restore light sensitivity in blind mice. The compound, called DENAQ, acts as a “photoswitch” that can turn on light-sensitive cells in retinas when…
Environmental scientists have warned the long-term effects of synthetic chemicals used in packaging, food storage and processing food could be damaging our health. In a paper published in the Journal of…
Families where mothers earn as much as or more than fathers are no more likely to split up than those where mothers earn less, according to new research published today. In fact, the evidence shows that…
A genetic predisposition to weight gain and obesity in later life can in part be explained by a lack of feeling full after eating, according to a new study in JAMA Paediatrics. Although there has been…
The work of the Greek polymath Plato has kept millions of people busy for millennia. A few among them have been mathematicians who have obsessed about Platonic solids, a class of geometric forms that are…
A large study on the benefits of breast cancer screening has cast doubt on the value of mammograms in reducing deaths from the disease in women aged 40-49 compared to other methods such as physical examination…