Adam Smith watches science from the sidelines. As a journalist, he covers the politics of science for Research Fortnight magazine. He has previously written for the BBC, New Humanist, the BMJ and the Guardian. Although he is interested in all…
Groundbreaking new genetic research holds out the promise that no more babies will be born with mitochondria disease. But it raises big ethical questions. Adam Smith investigates.
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Adam Smith takes a tour of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Europe’s leading genetics institute, home to the team that made the largest single contribution to the sequencing of the human genome.
If all the salt in the ocean could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth’s land surface it would form a layer more than 166 metres thick – about the height of a 40-storey building. Adam Smith discovers why the salt of the Earth is so important.
These days we are used to hearing about the power of banks, GDP percentages, hedge funds, shareholders, stock market reports, house prices, the business cycle, deficits, debts, surpluses – but has it always been this way? Has money and finance always been such a prominent focal point for the popular consciousness? And if so, how has the representation of money changed and what does this tell us about our society?
Mathematicians around the world have been making exciting breakthroughs recently in a huge and open collaboration on an ancient mathematical problem.
An evidence-led debate on on the emotive subject of hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) for shale gas . This is the second sitting of the Rational Parliament.
Are you sick of the overheated, braying politics of Westminster, where there is a lot of heat, but not much light? What’s the alternative? Try this: A rational parliament would be ruled by free thinking and would respect the balance…
Volcanoes – Andy Warhol painted them, scientists study them, tourists gawp at them and legendary vulcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson has spent 50 years taking the temperatures of these exploding mountains.
Adam Smith writes: Academics like a good gossip as much as the next person. Many of them enjoy a grumble about their vice-chancellor over a cup of tea and exchanging rumours about colleagues’ professional and personal antics. One of the…
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