First posted January 05, 2016 NB: This interview taken by Dr K. Sohail with Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy was dated February 2000; but the link at which I first pocured it is now inactive. Those capable of searching for it could start with this link. DS Sohail: When I read your book “Islam and Science’, I was… Read More How difficult it is to help people change their thinking: Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy (Canada 2000)
The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed colorful new portraits of the iconic Ring Nebula. Smithsonian Magazine The new images capture the complex details of the planetary nebula, an enormous cloud of cosmic gas and dust that’s home to the remnants of a dying star. The two images were taken in different wavelengths of infrared… Read More Ring Nebula in unprecedented detail
As the climate warms, scientists have suggested that “time-traveling pathogens” unleashed by thawing Arctic permafrost may pose a risk to modern ecosystems. Permafrost is a hard layer of frozen ground made of soil, sand and rocks in high-latitude or high-altitude areas such as Greenland, Alaska, Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau and northern Canada. This icy layer traps microbes that… Read More New study warns against risks of ‘time-traveling pathogens’
About one in seven people in the UK now take medication to treat depression but some say they are not being given appropriate advice about the potential side-effects of the drugs they have been prescribed. By Anton Ferrie Seonaid Stallan’s son Dylan was a teenager when he began receiving treatment for body dysmorphia and depression.… Read More Antidepressants: I wasn’t told about the side-effects
Air pollution is helping to drive a rise in antibiotic resistance that poses a significant threat to human health worldwide, a global study suggests. The analysis, using data from more than 100 countries spanning nearly two decades, indicates that increased air pollution is linked with rising antibiotic resistance across every country and continent. It also… Read More Air pollution linked to rise in antibiotic resistance that imperils human health
The deadly effects of ideological extremism in the Middle East for the past few decades have caused governments and journalists to focus on it. The Arabic word is al-taṭarruf. I was interested, however, to see the word put to a different purpose in a Sky News Arabia article , where it is used to refer to extremely high… Read More Climate Change: the New Mideast Extremism / Severe Consequences of new Oil, Gas and Coal Production
First posted April 17, 2012 “In view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued existence of mankind, we urge the governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war,… Read More The Russell-Einstein Manifesto of 1955
The Oppenheimer director, Christopher Nolan, has highlighted the difficulties of applying nuclear weapons-style regulation to artificial intelligence, as he warned that the United Nations had become a “very diminished” force. Nolan told the Guardian J Robert Oppenheimer’s call for international control of nuclear weapons had “sort of come true”, but there had nonetheless been extensive proliferation of… Read More Christopher Nolan: strong parallels between Oppenheimer and scientists worried about AI
Martin Sherwin struck the deal and dived into the research. But it was only when Kai Bird joined as a collaborator that American Prometheus came to be. By Andy Kifer Martin Sherwin was hardly your classic blocked writer. Outgoing, funny, and athletic, he is described by those who knew him as the opposite of neurotic. EDDIE… Read More Behind ‘Oppenheimer,’ a Prizewinning Biography 25 Years in the Making
*Originally published on November 12, 2020. This is Part 4 of the six-part 2020 Massey Lecture series Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society. Find the rest of the series here. The internet was supposed to be our salvation. While historically power has remained in the tight grasp of a select few, the initial vision of the internet… Read More Digital authoritarianism: How technology was seized by autocrats
After the truth-shower 