Science + Tech – Articles, Analysis, Comment – The Conversation

‘So…what do you say?’ Everett Collection

How to be more persuasive – according to science

Harriet Dempsey-Jones, The University of Queensland

Five tricks that might help you get what you want from others.

Facebook wants your nude photos to prevent ‘revenge porn’ – here’s why you should be sceptical

Amy Binns, University of Central Lancashire

Facebook’s record raises serious questions about whether it can be trusted with our most intimate images.

Five new jobs for humans if robots take over the world

Héctor González-Jiménez, University of York

Welcome to your future.

J. Michael Creeth. University of Nottingham.

The forgotten scientist who paved the way for the discovery of DNA’s structure

Stephen Harding, University of Nottingham

Remembering J. M. Creeth, 70 years after he discovered hydrogen bonds in DNA.

Sheep can recognise celebrities from photographs, says amusing study with serious potential

Catherine Douglas, Newcastle University

It’s no surprise sheep can recognise people – their intelligence is often overlooked.

Why is it nice to be nice? Solving Darwin’s puzzle of kindness

Eva M Krockow, University of Leicester; Andrew M Colman, University of Leicester, and Briony Pulford, University of Leicester

The very existence of kindness and altruism seems to contradict Darwin’s theory of evolution. So how could kind behaviour have evolved?

Is Iceland’s tallest volcano awakening?

Dave McGarvie, The Open University; John A Stevenson, British Geological Survey, and Peter Nicholls, The Open University

The saga of Öræfajökull suggests we should take small earthquakes in the region seriously.

Dinosaurs could have avoided mass extinction if the killer asteroid had landed almost anywhere else

Matthew Wills, University of Bath

The mass extinction of the dinosaurs was down to the location of the asteroid’s impact and the kind of rocks it landed on.

Email overload is stressing us out. Chutima Chaochaiya/Shutterstock

Five myths about email at work and how to cope with communications overload

Emma Russell, Kingston University

The things we think about email, rightly or wrongly, and what light scientific research has to shine on them.

The Earth has a powerful magnetic field. NASA

Mysterious ‘geomagnetic spike’ 3,000 years ago challenges our understanding of the Earth’s interior

Christopher Davies, University of Leeds

A strange patch of extremely strong magnetic field occurred over Jordan in 1000BC. Could we be about to face another one?

Marie Curie in her laboratory. wikipedia.

Is Marie Skłodowska Curie still a good role model for female scientists at 150?

Monica Grady, The Open University

Marie Skłodowska Curie was born 150 years ago and is still the only female scientist many people can name.

Kyle Tingly as Star Wars droid C3PO while braving heavy rain at a 4th of July Parade Georgia, USA, in 2015. EPA/ERIK S. LESSER

Future robots won’t resemble humans – we’re too inefficient

Simon Watson, University of Manchester

When it comes to robotics, the future is not two-legged.

The internal ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus could be old enough to have evolved life, finds study

Monica Grady, The Open University

Scientists used to think that the ocean on Enceladus would be transient, perhaps freezing after a few million years. A new study suggests this isn’t the case.

Why openness, not technology alone, must be the heart of the digital economy

Rufus Pollock, University of Cambridge

The printing press, like the internet, has been revolutionary. But technology alone is not enough – access to to it must be open to ensure its benefits are felt.