The Conversation

In her first state of the union address as president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen called out hatred and pledged to build “a union of equality”. While European institutions have been at the forefront of fighting hate crime and discrimination in and outside of the EU, memberContinue Reading

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AI called GPT-3 can now write like a human without thinking like one

Bas Nastassia/Shutterstock Since it was unveiled earlier this year, the new AI-based language generating software GPT-3 has attracted much attention for its ability to produce passages of writing that are convincingly human-like. Some have even suggested that the program, created by Elon Musk’s OpenAI, may be considered or appears toContinue Reading

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How the modern world was shaped by epidemics 500 years ago

Wikimedia Commons The coronavirus pandemic has been compared with many previous contagions, including the great plague and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. However, there has been little consideration of probably the most significant historical episode of disease. The modern world as we know it would not have existed without theContinue Reading

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The four most promising worlds for alien life in the solar system

NASA's Curiosity Rover takes a selfie on Mars in June, 2018. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, CC BY-SA The Earth’s biosphere contains all the known ingredients necessary for life as we know it. Broadly speaking these are: liquid water, at least one source of energy, and an inventory of biologically useful elements and molecules.Continue Reading

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Mayflower 400: how the pilgrims coped with separation

Writing letters allowed the puritan community spread across England, Holland and the US feel a lot smaller continue practices that were important to their worship. Scisetti Alfio/Shutterstock Those who emigrated on the Mayflower in 1620 seeking religious liberty might not have realised the challenges that lay ahead of them. RoaringContinue Reading

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