Angus Barrett asks whether there is an ultimate destination for science. Nietzsche thought that existence was found in the tension between two forces: the ordered, rational and conscious Apollonian, and the chaotic, emotional and unconscious Dionysian, both of which he named after the Greek gods who represented these differing concepts. He believed that life was…
Darlan da Silva Candido on what it’s like to work at the frontier of COVID-19 research. When the first cases of Covid-19 were reported early this year, I had no idea how much this would change the world, my life and my career. Just over six months into the amazing experience of working on the…
Maribel Schonewolff on why we age and how we might combat senescence in the future. When I asked my friends to brainstorm about ageing their first responses were “white hair, wrinkles, no teeth”, “calm and wise grandparents”, “no sex”. These associations are quite common and show that aging is mostly referred to as something negative…
Tasmin Sarkany on how interdisciplinary science might lead to major insights about disease and the origin of life. It can often seem that biology, chemistry and physics are growing further apart, but some of the current major scientific frontiers defy this. Lying on the boundary of theoretical physics and cell biology is the fascinating study…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
