shutterstock ChatGPT has been touted as a tool that is going to revolutionise the workplace and home. AI systems like it have the potential to enhance productivity but could also displace jobs. The ChatGPT website received 1.5 billion visits last month. Though no comprehensive statistics exist, these users are likelyContinue Reading
Roman Barkov/Shutterstock Imagine a world where you could control your sense of time. Where trips to the dentist flew by in a second and holidays felt like they lasted forever. Time altering pills may sound like science fiction but the time warping effects of psychoactive drugs suggest that deliberate timeContinue Reading
Evgeniy Goncharov photo/Shutterstock We’ve all read stories about owners’ love for their pets, but you might be taken aback to hear how some people are willing to spend thousands of pounds on vet care for small animals like guinea-pigs and hamsters. A Guardian journalist recently reported spending £2,000 on vetContinue Reading
Otodus megalodon, the biggest shark of all time, has long captured the imaginations of palaeontologists and the public alike. Scientific fascination spawns from the sheer enormity of their fossilised teeth. As big as human hands and serrated like kitchen knives, they were used for cutting down whales unlucky enough toContinue Reading
Prostock-studio/Shutterstock Every individual’s experience of pain is unique – but that makes it harder to treat. The experience of pain remains impenetrable to scientists because it is so variable. So researchers and clinicians still rely on subjective ratings, such as asking patients to rate their pain on a scale ofContinue Reading
Starling murmurations form as daylight fades over their roosting sites. Shutterstock / Albert Beukhof The word swarm often carries negative connotations – think biblical plagues of locusts or high streets full of last-minute shoppers during the Christmas rush. However, swarming is essential for the survival of many animal collectives. AndContinue Reading
Bjoern Wylezich / Shutterstock “A diamond is forever.” That iconic slogan, coined for a highly successful advertising campaign in the 1940s, sold the gemstones as a symbol of eternal commitment and unity. But our new research, carried out by researchers in a variety of countries and published in Nature, suggestsContinue Reading
Shift Drive / Shutterstock Hiring is normally featured as a prime example for algorithmic bias. This is where a tendency to favour some groups over others becomes accidentally fixed in an AI system designed to perform a specific task. There are countless stories about this. Perhaps the best known exampleContinue Reading
AstroStar/Shutterstock Humans have a knack for sharing intimate moments in unlikely places, as membership of the mile-high club demonstrates. So there is a significant chance that the launch of the space tourism sector may be swiftly followed by the first sex in space. But having researched the issue, my colleaguesContinue Reading
Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock Horizon Europe is the largest and richest funding programme for scientific research in the world. Run by the European Union (EU), it has a budget of €95.5 billion (£83 billion) spread over seven years – from 2021 to 2027. Until 2020, the UK was a full memberContinue Reading
