mycteria/Shutterstock In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that almost half the world’s population was at risk of malaria, while some 627,000 people died from the disease. Although a malaria vaccine may soon be available (the WHO recommended one for children last year), malaria is just one of severalContinue Reading
The locations of 115 candidate free floating planets in the region between Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchus European Southern Observatory, CC BY-SA We now know of almost 5,000 planets outside the Solar System. If you were to picture what it would be like on one of these distant worlds, or exoplanets,Continue Reading
The Matrix is among the most influential science fiction films of all time. Nearly 20 years since the third film in the series premiered, a fourth chapter, The Matrix Resurrections, was released in December to great excitement. But one of The Matrix’s most enduring cultural contributions has been to conspiracyContinue Reading
Hoteliers in Bristol have made a fresh plea to the Government to extend the current reduced rate of VAT for their businesses, which face a bleak start to 2022. Most members of the Bristol Hoteliers Association (BHA) suffered a difficult end to 2021 with many reporting business was at leastContinue Reading
wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock In an episode of the popular TV series Black Mirror called Crocodile, an investigator asks a witness to smell a bottle of beer. The aim is to refresh her memory of a crime scene (the crime took place near a brewery). This might not exactly be standard practice, butContinue Reading
Could it happen? Triff/Shutterstock Don’t look now – but we are currently experiencing a rash of stories about a forthcoming global catastrophe. But in a change from reports of pandemics and climate change, this global catastrophe is produced by the impact of a giant asteroid. Or comet. Or both. ThisContinue Reading
Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock Commercial spaceflight companies such as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are now offering exclusive opportunities for celebrities and civilians to travel to space. Traditionally, astronauts have been subject to rigorous training and medical scrutiny before going to space, and the risk of death from natural causes was consideredContinue Reading
The idea of spending thousands or even millions of dollars to buy fictitious “land” in a virtual world sounds, to be frank, absurd. But in recent months, we’ve seen significant investments in virtual land within the metaverse. PwC is among the latest to dive in, having purchased real estate inContinue Reading
The long-tail consequences of fighting Covid-19 must be mitigated—in education, women’s rights, climate, and more.Continue Reading
The RiverDip experiment is one of many citizen science projects out there. Natallia Boroda/Shutterstock Sometimes the most powerful tool in research is people spending a few minutes to record their observations while going about their daily lives. An early example of this sort of “citizen science” is the annual gardenContinue Reading
