Features
Robots In Our Blood
Dhruval Soni discusses the future of nanotechnology in medicine. The past decades have seen robots become smaller and smaller, until in March last year this development moved past a long-standing frontier – robots became microscopic and thus viable for entry into the human body. Every field of medicine from oncology to paediatrics will be influenced…
The Frontier in Your Living Room
Jake Burton on the unlikely benefits of citizen science. Your Scientists Need You Citizen science, where members of the public contribute to collecting and analysing data to further scientific research, has a long history. One project, the Christmas Bird Count, has been taking place across North America every year since 1900. And though ecological surveys…
Navigating Science in the Media
This month I read an online article entitled ‘The 5G network is spreading coronavirus’ and it must be correct because it was written by a “scientist”, someone whose opinion we tend to trust. Plentiful scientific explanation and jargon, to a reader that doesn’t have a background in science, only serves to make the article seemingly…
Ozone
Sophie Littlewood on what the ozone hole tells us about human responsibility, manufactured doubt and international collaboration. In May 1985, three scientists from the British Antarctic Survey published a shock discovery: the ozone layer had a hole in it. The hole – or, more accurately, the area over Antarctica where ozone concentration is abnormally low…
When Science Meets Politics
Emma Hedley on fake news, experts and why we all need to learn about science. In the past few years we have heard time and time and again that people are tired of being told what to do by experts. To quote Michael Gove, ‘I think the people in this country have had enough of…
Brain Augmentation
Atreyi Chakrabarty in conversation with your brain. In 2006, the first paralysis patient could control a computer cursor using just her thoughts and a brain-computer interface. In 2012, two more paralysis patients were able to control an independent robotic arm to grab a drink from a water bottle. Reading the brain’s electrical signals was an…
When Science Fails
Sian Wilcox on failure: science’s greatest achievement. When most people think of science, they recall news articles detailing logical and coherent stories that reach a satisfying conclusion. Each neatly packaged piece of research is then further condensed into an eye-catching title that showcases the main finding. Nevertheless, this presentation of science does not recognise the…
Undoing Scientific Wrongdoings: Is Journal Retraction Enough?
Following a spate of recent high-profile journal retractions, some scientists are questioning the integrity of the peer-review process and how flawed articles can be published in high-impact journals. But what happens when a journal article is retracted, and is it too late to truly disregard the details it contained? Let’s take a deeper look into…
Too Hard A Problem?
Gideon Bernstein wonders if we will ever understand consciousness. Descartes famously proclaimed that his consciousness was the only thing he could be sure of. Yet despite the monumental advances of modern psychology, an explanation of how consciousness arises still eludes us. But will it eventually fall to the incoming tide of knowledge, as so many…
The Drug Dilemma
Charlotte Green asks which pharmaceuticals are worth developing. When people learn that I study biochemistry, a common joke is whether I’ll find a cure for cancer. As I enter my final year, my mum still thinks it should be my goal. I sometimes wonder why it’s a cure for cancer she wants, rather than dementia,…