Monthly Archives: January 2010
Book Reviews
Why We Disagree About Climate Change Going beyond the typical scope of the debate, Mike Hulme, founding director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, presents climate change as a philosophical idea and more than just a physical phenomenon. He begins with a brief history of the debate, focusing on six researchers who built [...]
Technology: Computing in the Cloud
Fernando Ramos looks to the future of web technology Advances in cloud computing technology promise a style of computing in which flexible and accessible resources are provided as a universal service over the internet. This may revolutionise the way we use computers. The basic premise of a cloud application is that data is stored online [...]
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History: The Nature of the Beast
Lindsey Nield traces the contributions and controversies in the history of animal research Society has gained immense benefit from research involving animals. According to the Royal Society, virtually every medical achievement in the past century has relied on the use of animals in some way. Today, animal experimentation is used for scientific and medical research [...]
Arts & Reviews: A Significant Interaction
Cat Davies talks to Nicola Clayton, Professor of Comparative Cognition and Fellow at Clare College, about her collaboration with the Rambert Dance Company As academics we are by definition specialists. With sharp skills, wise decision-making and right-place-right-time luck, we find a position within our chosen niche. And so our specialism becomes even more defined, like [...]
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Away from the Bench: An Ancestor’s Tools
Kathelijne Koops roams the African rainforest to study chimpanzee culture I first set foot on African soil as an undergraduate ready for a life-changing experience as I headed into the tropical rainforests of western Africa to study the elusive chimpanzees of the Nimba Mountains in southwest Guinea. Little did I know that six years later, [...]
Posted in Earth & environment, Life sciences Leave a comment
Perspective: Faith in Science
Ian Fyfe gives his perspective on why rejecting religion is bad for science As a scientist, darwinist and atheist, I may be expected to join with Dawkins and his disciples to worship science and spurn religion. But religion is an integral part of humans as a species and cannot simply be removed. For me, those [...]
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Behind the Science: Joker, Womaniser… Physicist?
Jake Harris looks at the life behind the science of Richard Feynman We often learn little more about scientists than their name and the value of the constant they defined: Boltzmann, Avogadro, Planck. We are forced to generate our own ideas about scientists’ personalities with little basis. People are drawn to a stereotype of successful [...]
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Focus: The End of Ageing?
BlueSci looks at the biology of ageing, how research is helping us to understand and overcome it and the impact on society if we could live longer. The quest to prevent ageing is beginning to move slowly from science fiction to science fact. Perhaps the most profound consequence of this revolution in longevity is the [...]
Feature: Teaching Computers to Speak
Anja Komatar examines the process of combining machine systems and human-like language Making computers that can understand and use human-like language is one of the most difficult problems to solve in computer science. Uniting biologists, mathematicians, psychologists, anthropologists and computer scientists, the goal of teaching computers to speak is arguably part of the central problem [...]
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Letters