Category: Technology

Imagine the scenario: you’ve been told you have a disease that will kill you. But, the doctor adds, your life can be saved if you diligently take your medication. Don’t skip a day, don’t skip a dosage. Soon, however, you discover that the medication has a slew of side effects, including a loss of appetite, […]

The microbes living in your food can affect your risk of cancer. While some help your body fight cancer, others help tumors evolve and grow. Gut microbes can influence your cancer risk by changing how your cells behave. Many cancer-protective microbes support normal, cooperative behavior of cells. Meanwhile, cancer-inducing microbes undermine cellular cooperation and increase […]

Women’s sexuality is vastly understudied in science and is still considered a “taboo” subject. Often, the experiences of men have been taken as the norm in scientific research, yet there are important differences in the sexuality of men and women. In 2020, approximately 3.2% of the population in the UK over the age of 16 […]

Storytelling and science may, at first glance, seem like strange bedfellows. Scientists usually share their research through academic journals and books or at academic conferences. But storytelling is a powerful way to share scientific research with non-expert audiences. Today, stories can be built digitally: photos, videos and audio clips create visually, emotionally effective stories that […]

It doesn’t take much to get ChatGPT to make a factual mistake. My son is doing a report on U.S. presidents, so I figured I’d help him out by looking up a few biographies. I tried asking for a list of books about Abraham Lincoln and it did a pretty good job: A reasonable list […]

Some women consign themselves to breastfeeding in public toilets to prevent their apparently sexually explosive nipples causing offence. On hot days, meanwhile, males of all ages, shapes and sizes, peel off their tops without a second thought. For over a decade many social media platforms banned the exposure of female, but not male nipples. Tech […]

President Joe Biden is hosting the Second US-Africa Leaders Summit in mid-December 2022. The focus will be on eight areas: economic engagement; peace, security and good governance; democracy and human rights; regional and global health security (including recovery from COVID-19 and pandemic preparedness); food security; climate change; diaspora ties; and education and youth leadership. Of […]

The U.S. military shot down what U.S. officials called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, 2023. Officials said that the U.S. Navy planned to recover the debris, which is in shallow water. The U.S. and Canada tracked the balloon as it crossed the Aleutian Islands, passed over Western […]

Cats and dogs famously don’t get on with each other. We seem quite able to recognise a fight between these two species. However, even experienced cat owners can struggle to tell the difference between rough-and-tumble play and scraps between cats. Some people may tell themselves it doesn’t matter and cats just do what they want. […]

There’s no trait that distinguishes humans from all other mammals more clearly than the way we walk. Human habitual bipedalism – obligatory walking on two legs – has long been a defining trait of our species, as well as our ancestors as far back as 4.5 million years ago. Science’s growing understanding of chimpanzee culture, […]