Illustration of a future Moon base by the European Space Agency, which hasn't signed the Artemis Accords. ESA; RegoLight, visualisation: Liquifer Systems Group, 2018, CC BY-SA Eight countries have signed the Artemis Accords, a set of guidelines surrounding the Artemis Program for crewed exploration of the Moon. The United Kingdom,Continue Reading
Media Whalestock/Shutterstock From self-driving cars, to digital assistants, artificial intelligence (AI) is fast becoming an integral technology in our lives today. But this same technology that can help to make our day-to-day life easier is also being incorporated into weapons for use in combat situations. Weaponised AI features heavily inContinue Reading
Shutterstock/MartaDM It’s widely believed that social media conspiracy theories are driven by malicious and anonymous “bots” set up by shadowy third parties. But my new research – which examined an extremely successful COVID-19 conspiracy theory – has shown that ordinary citizen accounts can be just as culpable when it comesContinue Reading
Photo of a nearly full Moon shining brightly on the Earth's atmosphere, taken from the International Space Station. NASA The habitability of a planet depends on many factors. One is the existence of a strong and long-lived magnetic field. These fields are generated thousands of kilometres below the planet’s surfaceContinue Reading
Mark Nazh/Shutterstock Virtual reality (VR) has the power to take us out of our surroundings and transport us to far-off lands. From a quick round of golf, to fighting monsters or going for a skydive, all of this can be achieved from the comfort of your home. But it’s notContinue Reading
Dance classes have been implicated as potential superspreading events. dorglao/Shutterstock The COVID-19 coronavirus is not your average virus. During the pandemic, it has become increasingly clear that averages do not apply in understanding the paths the virus takes or when or where it attacks. What some scientists and specialists inContinue Reading
Piccadilly Circus subway underground station is emptier than usual. Matteo Roma/Shutterstock To get through the COVID-19 pandemic, we need good information. One hugely important statistic is how many people have died from the disease in various countries. But it’s notoriously difficult to compare deaths in this way – each nationContinue Reading
Artist's impression of early mammals. John Sibbick/University of Bristol, Author provided Warm blood is one of the key traits that led to the success of mammals as they evolved from scurrying beneath the feet of dinosaurs to spreading into the wild and wonderful collection of animals we know today. ButContinue Reading
We can’t say with any certainty what the future of COVID-19 is. But based on our experience with other infections, there is little reason to believe that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 will go away any time soon, even when vaccines become available. A more realistic scenario is that it will beContinue Reading
A prehistoric woman with a child have left behind the world's longest trackway. Author provided Every parent knows the feeling. Your child is crying and wants to go home, you pick them up to comfort them and move faster, your arms tired with a long walk ahead – but youContinue Reading
