Archive for the ‘Science & technology’ Category
How millions will be able to live longer
September 22nd, 2025 by Roger Darlington
In a world awash with depressing news, it is wonderful to learn that we have an AI tool that can predict the chances of any particular individual developing a whole range of diseases which will enable lifestyle changes and medical interventions to extend the lives of millions. One of the two health databases on which […]
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It’s time that I came to terms with AI
June 16th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Like many men in now their 70s, I came late to computing – and I would probably have come even later if it hadn’t been for the fact that I was asked to become Head of Research when the Communication Workers Union (CWU) was created in 1995. This made me head of a team of […]
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Would you want to know if you are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease?
May 19th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
In the UK, there are currently around one million cases of people with dementia. Some 60-70% of all cases of dementia are a form of Alzheimer’s disease. In Alzheimer’s disease, certain proteins build up in the brain. One protein called amyloid forms sticky clumps called ‘plaques’ outside the brain cells. Another protein known as ‘Tau’ […]
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AI successfully applies to become an art student at a university in Vienna
April 3rd, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Check it out here.
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What is time?
November 17th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Now there’s a question and a cold and wet Sunday is as good a time as any to attend a course on this topic. It was at London’s City Literary Institute and just one day. It was delivered by Radmilla Topalovic and it was mind-blowing. We spent a lot of time looking at how time […]
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Word of the day: nyctohylophobia
June 2nd, 2024 by Roger Darlington
The word means: a fear of dark forests or wooded areas. It occurs in the English translation of the Chinese science fiction novel “Death’s End” by Cixin Liu. In the context of this novel, the ‘forest’ refers to the theory that, in the vastness of the universe, there are countless other civilisations. The ‘dark’ rests […]
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Is there anyone out there? How would we know?
April 28th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
If there is an alien civilisation, it is probably on a planet circling a star, right? There are an estimated 200 billion trillion stars in the universe. A lot, right? So how come we have found no evidence for any other intelligent life? I’d always assumed that evidence could come from the use of the […]
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Have there been lost civilisations? How would we know?
April 28th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
In this fascinating article, the wonderfully-named Flint Dibble – an esteemed archaeologist – effectively rebuts the arguments of Graham Hancock. He writes: “It’s the quantity of actual archaeology, an enormous body of positive evidence, that proves the negative. There is no lost civilisation from the Ice Age that was global and used advanced technology to […]
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A review of the new science book “White Holes” by Carlo Rovelli
March 10th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
This is the third book that I’ve read written by the famous Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli. He has a lively and engaging style, unusual for scientists, and this latest work contains a series of references to Dante’s “Inferno”. But the concepts about which he writes are hard to comprehend. Black holes used to be […]
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What do you know about zero-degree longitude and the international date line?
January 26th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
The location of zero-degree latitude is obvious (the equator), but the location of zero-degree longitude is a purely political decision. It was variously placed at the Canary & Madeira Islands, the Azores, the Cape Verde Islands, Rome, Copenhagen, Jerusalem, St Petersburg, Pisa, Paris, and Philadelphia (among other places) before it finally settled down in London. No […]
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