Category Archives: Science

14Dec/25

R&D and collab in Africa

December 14, 2025ScienceClimate change mitigation, Costigan, Foundation for Science and Technology, Jim Skea, Ottoline Leyser, Science policy, UK Research and Innovation, United Kingdom, Willettsadmin

Dec. 14, 2025 /Mpelembe Media/ — The FST journal, Volume 24, Number 2, published by the Foundation for Science and Technology in December 2025 focuses on several critical topics in science and technology policy within the UK and globally. Key themes include an event report on R&D collaboration in Africa, emphasizing shared growth and mutual benefit, and an in-depth conversation with Dame Ottoline Leyser, the recently retired Chief Executive of UKRI, discussing the future and function of UK research councils and funding. Continue reading →

08May/25

Conclave: the chemistry behind the black and white smoke

May 8, 2025ScienceAir pollution, Combustion, Creative Commons, Fire, Flame, Mark Lorch, Papal conclave, Pollution, Pope, Potassium chlorate, Smoke, Smoke composition, Smoke screen, Soot, United Kingdomadmin

Mark Lorch, University of Hull

This week, 133 cardinals have gathered in the Vatican to elect a new leader of the Catholic church. During their deliberations, the only indications of their progress are the regular plumes of smoke wafting from a freshly installed chimney perched on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.

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28Oct/24

A new ‘race science’ network is linked to a history of eugenics that never fully left academia

October 28, 2024Scienceanthropologie, Creative Commons, Enoch Powell, Eugenics, Eugenics in the United Kingdom, France, Francis Galton, Germany, Intelligence researchers, Lars Cornelissen, Mankind Quarterly, Neue Anthropologie, Pioneer Fund, Pseudoscience, Richard Lynn, Scientific racism, Technological utopianism, United Statesadmin

Lars Cornelissen, Independent Social Research Foundation

The Guardian and anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate have revealed the existence of a new network of far-right intellectuals and activists in an undercover investigation. Called the Human Diversity Foundation (HDF), this group advocates scientific racism and eugenics. Although it presents itself as having a scientific purpose, some of its figureheads have political ambitions in Germany and elsewhere.

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04Sep/24

Clarivate Launches Generative AI-Powered Web of Science Research Assistant

September 4, 2024ScienceArtificial intelligence, Clarivate, Clarivate Plc, Cybernetics, Generative artificial intelligenceadmin

Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a leading global provider of transformative intelligence, today released the Web of Science™ Research Assistant. The new generative AI-powered tool helps researchers find key papers faster, handle complex research tasks and visualize connections. The chat interface combined with the Web of Science knowledge graph allows researchers to get more out of their interactions with 120 years of trusted publication and citation data in the Web of Science Core Collection™. Continue reading

30Jul/24

Akamai Research: Web Attacks Targeting Applications and APIs Up by 49% in the Last Year

July 30, 2024ScienceAKAM, Akamai Technologies, Akamai Technologies Inc., API, Cloud computing, Cloud infrastructure, Content delivery networksadmin

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cloud company that powers and protects life online, today released a new State of the Internet (SOTI) report that shows how growth in demand for applications and APIs has transformed them into lucrative targets for threat actors. In Digital Fortresses Under Siege: Threats to Modern Application Architectures, Akamai notes that it observed more than 26 billion web attacks against applications and APIs in June 2024 alone, and that these attacks surged by 49% over the last year. Read more

15Dec/23

Kenyan digital IDs: paused again

December 15, 2023ScienceE-government, Huduma Kenya, Huduma Namba, Identity document, Kenya, Magadi, NAIROBI, Nita Bhalla, Politics and technology, Public administrationadmin

By Nita Bhalla | East Africa Correspondent

Dec 14, 2023, / Thomson Reuters Foundation/ — A high court in Kenya has halted the rollout of a new national digital identification programme, saying authorities failed to assess the risks from processing citizens’ personal data. Continue reading →

15Nov/23

How music heals us, even when it’s sad – by a neuroscientist leading a new study of musical therapy

November 15, 2023ScienceAGES, Aristotle, Benjamin Rush, Bulgaria, Creative Commons, Dimana Kardzhieva, dopamine, Frances Rauscher, Jonathan Smallwood, Leigh Riby, Ludwig van Beethoven, Martha, Mary Priestley, Newcastle, Northumbria University, Oliver Sacks, oxytocin, Riby, Sam Fenwick, Samuel Mathews, Shania Twain, Shania: Still the One, Steve Vai, Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky, Thayer Gaston, United Kingdom, United Statesadmin

Leigh Riby, Northumbria University, Newcastle

When I hear Shania Twain’s You’re Still The One, it takes me back to when I was 15, playing on my Dad’s PC. I was tidying up the mess after he had tried to [take his own life]. He’d been listening to her album, and I played it as I tidied up. Whenever I hear the song, I’m taken back – the sadness and anger comes flooding back.

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02Nov/23

Dr. Reed McNeil Izatt, American Chemist, Dies at 97

November 2, 2023ScienceAlexander Spowart Izatt, Izatt, Logan, Marian McNeil Izatt, McNeil, Reed McNeil Izatt, Salt Lake City, Utahadmin

Reed McNeil Izatt was born October 10, 1926, in Logan, Utah, the son of Alexander Spowart Izatt, Jr. and Marian McNeil Izatt. He died peacefully surrounded by his loving family on October 29, 2023, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Continue reading

19Jun/23

How a 400 million year old fossil changes our understanding of mathematical patterns in nature

June 19, 2023ScienceAnne Turner, Asteroxylon, Branches of biology, Branches of botany, Charles Darwin, Creative Commons, Evolutionary history of plants, Fibonacci numbers, Germany, Leaf, Leaves, Leonardo da Vinci, Luisa-Marie, Patterns in nature, Phyllotaxis, Plant morphology, Plants, Sandy Hetherington, Scotland, Spirals, United Kingdomadmin

Sandy Hetherington, The University of Edinburgh and Holly-Anne Turner, University College Cork

If your eyes have ever been drawn to the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem, the texture of a pineapple or the scales of a pinecone, then you have unknowingly witnessed brilliant examples of mathematical patterns in nature.

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31May/23

Kingdom Code is a scientific community

May 31, 2023ScienceAnthropic principle, Articles, Environments, Fine-tuned universe, Philosophy of science, Physical cosmology, Science, Scientific method, Universeadmin

May 31, 2023 /Lifestyle/ — Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. It is a process of discovery that involves making observations, formulating hypotheses, and testing those hypotheses through experiments.

Science can be seen as a miracle because it allows us to understand the world around us in a way that was not possible before. It has given us the ability to cure diseases, develop new technologies, and explore the universe. Continue reading →