Archive for the ‘Science & technology’ Category
Still more confirmation of the truth of evolution
January 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
It was in 2004 that scientists discovered a fossil called Tiktaalik, a 375m-year-old freshwater creature which was a link in the evolutionary chain from fish to amphibian, but at that time only the front part was available. This week, we have news about the back part which confirms the importance of Tiktaalik in demonstrating how evolution has […]
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Should we abandon the notion of essentialism and accept that most things are relative and changing?
January 12th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I’m a qualified fan of the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. I think that he is incredibly bright and writes a great deal of sense, but he can express himself in rather insensitive language. I was fascinated by a piece he has contributed on essentialism to this weekend’s “Observer” newspaper: “Essentialism – what I’ve called “the […]
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10 technology trends that one can expect in 2014
January 4th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas starts this weekend and one reporter has offered suggestions for the top ten trends to be exhibited at the event – see here.
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A funny (and clever) collection of science jokes
December 29th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Check them out here.
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Why is gold so valuable?
December 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
I don’t possess any gold. Even my wedding ring is white gold. But many people love gold and for centuries it has been a source of value to so much of humankind. On the BBC web site, Justin Rowlatt offers this explanation for the metal’s appeal.
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Are men really from Mars? Are women really from Venus?
December 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Or are both genders shaped by their cultural experiences on planet Earth? “Yes, men and women probably do have differently wired brains, but there is little convincing evidence to suggest these variations are caused by anything other than cultural factors. Males develop improved spatial skills not because of an innate superiority but because they are […]
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Can you send an e-mail? Then you’re cleverer than a Nobel Prize winner.
December 7th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
He’s never sent an e-mail or even browsed the web. He’s never made a mobile call and he doesn’t own a television. Yet he has recently won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his prediction of the existence of the Higgs boson particle. He is the brilliant but eccentric scientist Peter Higgs. See an interview with […]
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Coming soon to somebody near you – or even you: transient or biodegradable electronics
October 27th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
“Imagine recovering from an operation without fear of a post-op infection from a drug-resistant super-bug. Imagine that this is because of a tiny electronic device left behind when they sewed you back up, which monitors the wound, picks up signs of infection, administers a specific amount of heat to the right area and then, job […]
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How far would you trust a robot? – or how we need to be intelligent about Artificial Intelligence
October 21st, 2013 by Roger Darlington
A couple of weeks ago, I did a long posting about my attendance at the first day of an event called FutureFest – a series of speeches about different aspects of the future. One the the addresses was by Berlolt Meyer, a German social psychologist with a bionic left hand to compensate for a birth […]
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Why the brain is more efficient than any current computer – and how future computers will behave more like our brain
October 19th, 2013 by Roger Darlington
Ninety-nine per cent of a computer’s volume is devoted to cooling and powering. Only 1% is used to process information. By contrast, the brain uses 40% of its volume for functional performance – and only 10% for energy and cooling. And the human brain is 10,000 times more dense and efficient than any computer today. […]
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