We appear to live in an age of misinformation. Certain broadcasters and social media celebrities openly promote fake facts or misrepresentations of science and data to their audience, many of whom do not seem to care whether they are right or wrong, as long as they are hearing what theyContinue Reading
Prostock-studio/Shutterstock The NHS has been struggling for years with chronic underfunding and staff shortages. COVID has only made matters worse. Health Secretary Sajid Javid is now warning that NHS waiting lists for non-emergency operations and procedures could grow to 13 million up from 5.3 million in July 2021 while increasingContinue Reading
Pexels/victor freitas It’s human instinct to avoid suffering and try to make life as comfortable and easy as possible. But paradoxically, a great deal of research has shown that suffering and trauma can have positive long-term effects. Many people who go through intense trauma, for example, become deeper and strongerContinue Reading
Three microplastic researchers have backed out of an arrangement to send materials to the Science Museum in London to protest a controversial deal with Shell.Continue Reading
Luciann Photography / Pexels Pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions are very welcome – but accurate monitoring across the globe is crucial if we are to meet targets and combat the devastating consequences of global warming. During COP26 in Glasgow, many countries have set out their targets to reach net-zeroContinue Reading
SvedOliver/Shutterstock Language has traditionally been considered a complex skill which mobilises brain networks specifically dedicated to linguistic processing. But in recent years, neuroscience research has returned to this idea and offered new insights. Notably, studies have suggested that areas of the brain which control certain language functions, such as processingContinue Reading
Probably not… Tithi Luadthong/Shutterstock It has been over a year since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. And perhaps the most important lesson is that we were completely unprepared to face the debilitating virus. This raises some scary thoughts. What if the threat wasn’t COVID-19, but aContinue Reading
Artem Oleshko/Shutterstock Facebook has announced that it will stop using its facial recognition system – the artificial intelligence software which recognises people in photos and videos and generates suggestions about who to “tag” in them. Facial recognition systems, like Facebook’s, identify people by matching faces to digital representations of facesContinue Reading
Sid Balachandran / Unsplash, CC BY-SA In contrast to the many flamboyant species of birds, most of the 5,000 species of mammals are drab browns or greys. But there are a small number of well known and intriguing exceptions, most notably zebras, skunks, and orcas. Perhaps the most famous ofContinue Reading
Led Gapline/Shutterstock In the wake of Facebook rebranding as Meta, reflecting its focus on the “metaverse”, Microsoft has now announced it, too, will launch into this space. Meta has proposed that the metaverse will eventually allow us to engage across education, work and social contexts, while Microsoft looks to beContinue Reading
