Archive for the ‘Science & technology’ Category
Does Artificial Intelligence need a global regulator?
May 24th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
The leaders of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI have called for the regulation of “superintelligent” AIs, arguing that an equivalent to the International Atomic Energy Agency is needed to protect humanity from the risk of accidentally creating something with the power to destroy it. In a short note published to the company’s website, co-founders Greg Brockman […]
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What are the strengths and weaknesses of humans as a species?
May 23rd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
“Humans are an exquisitely intelligent and capable species of ape. Our physiology has been fine-tuned for efficient long-distance running; our hands are elegantly dextrous for manipulating and making; and our throats and mouths give us astonishing control over the sounds we make. We are virtuoso communicators, able to convey everything from physical instructions to abstract […]
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Do aliens know that we’re here? They should.
May 15th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Aliens on nearby stars could detect Earth through radio signals leaked from the planet, new research suggests. Scientists from The University of Manchester and the University of Mauritius used crowd sourced data to simulate radio leakage from mobile towers to determine what alien civilisations might detect from various nearby stars, including Barnard’s star, six light […]
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What is time and who controls it?
March 27th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I once went on a one-day course on time held at London’s City Literary Institute. The morning speaker was a physicist who explained that time was everything that had happened since the ‘big bang’ 13.8 billion years ago until now. The afternoon speaker was a philosopher who declared that there was no such thing as […]
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So, just how important are our friends?
March 7th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
“Building your life around close friendships rather than family or romance is a joyous and necessary act of rebellion, and governments should put in place ‘friendship ministries’ to radically rethink the way society is organised, a key French philosopher has argued. Geoffroy de Lagasnerie this week publishes a manifesto for friendship, ‘3 Une Aspiration au […]
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A review of “The Joy Of Science” by Jim Al-Khalili
February 13th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Jameel “Jim” Al-Khalili is an Iraqi-British scientist who is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey. He is well-known for his writing and broadcasting in which he explains difficult concepts in an accessible manner. This short and simple book contains little new to anyone who […]
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An interesting scientific question for you
February 8th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
If you were able to fly at the speed of light while holding a mirror in front of your face, would you see your own reflection? The answer is: yes – because the speed of light in a vacuum is a fundamental constant of nature. This question and answer comes from “The Joy Of Science” […]
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Are we inching closer to a cure for dementia?
November 22nd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This article offers some hope on the intractable and growing problem of dementia. For almost five years, I have been a participant in a long-term health study with the acronym CHARIOT PRO which has been studying the possible connection between dementia and a protein in the brain called beta amyloid. That study is about to […]
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Like movies? Interested in aviation? I have just the films for you.
July 20th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
There are many hundreds for film reviews on my website. But, as someone who is a massive movie fan and has a lifelong passion for aircraft, I have a special section with reviews of 68 aviation films. Check them out here.
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The grim record of covid deaths in the United States
December 15th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
The US death toll from Covid-19 has passed 800,000, a once-unimaginable figure seen as doubly tragic given that more than 200,000 of those lives were lost after vaccines became available last spring. The figure represents the highest reported toll of any country in the world and is likely to be even higher. The US accounts […]
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