In a recent speech at the British Science Festival in Newcastle, England, Astronomer Royal Martin Rees said on policy issues “scientists have a special responsibility to engage”. Yet he added: “They should…
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Science + Tech – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 5551 - 5575 of 5718 articles
WARNING: This article contains a spoiler. Don’t worry though, it’s not what happens in the final episode of Breaking Bad. Even academics don’t get early access. This week, Netflix has created a handy service…
Popular Science has announced that it will be closing online comments on its news stories. Uncivil commenters have an overly negative effect on readers, it claims, with a small number of negative commenters…
The World Bank is to provide a $1.2 million grant to fund the Open Data Partnership for Development, a project with the Open Knowledge Foundation and the Open Data Institute. The aim is to help developing…
A little known UK government initiative is underway to release vast amounts of personal data from companies to citizens with the laudable aim of handing power to the consumer. The midata initiative aims…
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit south-central Pakistan on Tuesday this week. Reports of hundreds of casualties highlight the awful scale of the tragedy, made more difficult for rescuers by the remote location…
You might think social networks couldn’t possibly gather more information on you than they already do. That in a world where your every move is tagged, flagged and logged, there is nothing more that could…
Species hold ecosystems in a delicate balance. From time to time humans introduce non-native species to an ecosystem, because they may be needed for domestic work, as pets, for carrying loads or even for…
We’ve come to expect something radically different from Apple every time it launches a new product and sure enough, the fingerprint sensor unveiled as part of the iPhone 5s, seemed like a revolution in…
Computers have been an important part of many industries for decades already and have replaced humans in many jobs. But a new wave of technological development means that even positions that we once saw…
Pneumonia kills more children worldwide than malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis combined. This is surprising given that treatment for pneumonia is relatively simple. In rich countries survival rates are very…
Could life really exist on other planets? The most positive scientific answer we can offer is: well, maybe, but we do not yet have enough evidence for or against. Yet Milton Wainwright and colleagues from…
A report from the Public Accounts Committee has revealed that the National Programme for IT in the NHS has cost the taxpayer close to £10 billion, despite having been abandoned. The committee’s chairman…
Using an e-reader may help some dyslexic students understand what they read more effectively, researchers at Harvard University argue. In a paper published in the journal PLOS One, the authors found that…
Massive Open Online Courses landed in the UK today with the launch of FutureLearn, a project led by the Open University and including around 20 universities from the UK, Monash University in Australia…
No one knows how life began on Earth. But for it to happen, some simple chemical building blocks would have been needed. Many scientists argue the Earth’s violent past, with its massive volcanoes and regular…
Charles Darwin famously drew upon Thomas Malthus’s treatise on human population growth to build his theory of evolution by natural selection. Malthus was worried about the rising population of the lower…
Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are an almost ubiquitous part of most young people’s lives after just a few years of existence. But the enthusiasm with which they have been adopted…
A report released recently has highlighted how out of step the UK has become with the rest of the world on open access policies. The UK has sought to be a leader in making publicly-funded research openly…
People who love animals and open spaces often have little use for other people. Naturalist David Attenborough recently described humans as “a plague on earth”. David Foreman of Earth First has set a goal…
My Dad used to say that if he had a pocket somewhere on his skin he’d keep a torch in it. I thought it was weird at the time but as my eyesight has dimmed, I get what he was on about. Now it’s a mobile…
It would be tempting to say the tech industry was reeling this week from the blatant discrimination and misogyny that took centre stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in San Francisco. It would be…
This year’s Ig Nobel prizes were awarded on September 12 at a meeting of nerds at Harvard University. The prizes are given for genuine scientific research that “first makes people laugh and then makes…
Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, is being touted as the material that could change how electronics are made. But it’s difficult to make graphene in forms needed for electronics. Now, researchers…
Science isn’t just for scientists. It’s not just a training for careers. Today’s young people – all of them – will live in a world, ever more dependent on technology, and ever more vulnerable to its failures…