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1 week ago | 
quantamagazine.org | Shalma Wegsman |Philip Ball |Charlie Wood |Steven Strogatz
Introduction Quantum gravity is one of the biggest unresolved and challenging problems in physics, as it seeks to reconcile quantum mechanics, which governs the microscopic world, and general relativity, which describes the macroscopic world of gravity and space-time.
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
theneweuropean.co.uk | Philip Ball
When the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority was established in 1991 in the wake of the advent of in vitro fertilisation (IVF), it was intended to regulate the use of human embryos both for reproductive purposes and in the scientific research made possible by the excess embryos generated for IVF. It was the first body of its kind in the world, and is now widely admired as a model of how to combine clear, strong regulation with a permissive research framework for embryology.
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
theneweuropean.co.uk | Philip Ball
From the increased vulnerabilities in the population due to austerity measures to the lackadaisical conduct of Boris Johnson as the threat of disaster loomed closer, grotesque failures of governance are not hard to find in the first report of the Covid inquiry, released on July 18. But some of the problems Baroness Hallett’s committee has identified in the UK’s rather dismal response to the Covid pandemic look more systemic.
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Jul 23, 2024 | 
theneweuropean.co.uk | Philip Ball
It’s a long time since British scientists had reason to feel optimistic about the political prospects for UK science. This isn’t so much about where the political dial is set – David Willetts, the minister for science under David Cameron, was well-respected by scientists – but about the appointment by Keir Starmer of informed and serious-minded people to administer the challenges and opportunities for science and technology.
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Jun 10, 2024 | 
quantamagazine.org | Philip Ball
IntroductionA few centuries ago, the swirling polychromatic chaos of Jupiter’s atmosphere spawned the immense vortex that we call the Great Red Spot. From the frantic firing of billions of neurons in your brain comes your unique and coherent experience of reading these words. As pedestrians each try to weave their path on a crowded sidewalk, they begin to follow one another, forming streams that no one ordained or consciously chose.
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May 24, 2024 | 01037-7/abstract&sz=64)
thelancet.com | Philip Ball
Many people (including me) will have experienced a family member or loved one who, rendered essentially non-verbal by dementia, will nonetheless sing along to the lyrics of a well-known song, often with evident delight at this reawakened ability to commune with others. Distressed babies can be soothed by gentle song when words do not work. People who stammer might find fluency in singing their speech.
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Mar 25, 2024 | 
quantamagazine.org | Philip Ball
IntroductionAt the end of last year, the tech giant IBM announced what might sound like a milestone in quantum computing: the first-ever chip, called the Condor, with more than 1,000 quantum bits, or qubits. Given that this was barely two years after the company unveiled the Eagle, the first chip with more than 100 qubits, it looked as though the field was racing forward.
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Feb 14, 2024 | 
quantamagazine.org | Philip Ball
IntroductionThe discovery during the Human Genome Project in the early 2000s that we humans have only about 20,000 protein-coding genes — about as many as the tiny soil-dwelling nematode worm, and less than half as many as the rice plant — came as a shock. That blow to our pride was softened, though, by the idea that the human genome is rich in regulatory connections.
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Nov 17, 2023 | 
newsbreak.com | Philip Ball
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Nov 16, 2023 | 02522-9/fulltext?rss=yes&sz=64)
thelancet.com | Philip Ball
It is hardly surprising that viruses do not have a good press. The very name is derived from the Latin word for a poisonous and perhaps slimy substance. In a medical context, the word originally connoted a putrid excrescence caused by an infectious disease that could transmit the disease to others. The image of viruses as agents apt to spread and cause suffering has been secured in recent times by lethal influenza strains, HIV, and now of course SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that stopped the world.
