Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist, set out in 1971 to study how our environment affects our behavior. He placed human volunteers in a mock prison at Stanford University in California. Participants were given the role of a 'prisoner or guard' and were...

Spillover events are when a pathogen from animals infects people. They have been responsible for every virus pandemic since the beginning of the 20th century. A August 2021 analysis of the four century history of disease outbreaks shows that the likelihood...

The Dutch government began using an algorithm in 2013 to ruin the lives of 25,000 parents. Although the software was supposed to predict who is most likely to commit fraud in childcare-benefit frauds, the government didn't wait for proof to penalize...

Half a century has passed since the first astronauts walked on Earth's Moon. They left footprints in lunar dust and captured iconic images of Earth. NASA will send people back if it has its way: NASA's Artemis programme is set to launch its first...

Nobody expected that Russia would invade Ukraine on 24 February. The United States, Canada, Japan, Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom would all respond with sanctions. This latest response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has had devastating...

The media was abuzz in 1999 when NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter crashed into the Martian atmosphere after it missed its orbit. This information was not exchanged by the navigation software. It didn't have a way to verify units. The spacecraft was sent...

According to Politico, a draft of an opinion by the US Supreme Court that was leaked to the media on May 2, abortion could soon be illegal in the United States. John Roberts, the court's chief judge, confirmed that the document of 98 pages is genuine,...

My birthplace was in West Bengal, India, near the Sundarbans mangrove forest. My childhood memories include overheard conversations between adults worried about the weather and how it would affect the rice crop. Climate-change impacts have always been a problem...

Menopause will affect half of the population. Menopause is an inevitable part of aging. It affects most women as well as trans and non-binary men. The symptoms can last up to a decade and are caused by a decline in hormone levels, including testosterone,...

Pandemics as well as climate change are two of the most serious crises facing humanity. Climate change increases many health risks. New viruses can spread to other countries and cause deadly outbreaks. Although efforts to combat climate change have been supported...

An average journal article only contains one analysis pipeline by one set analysts. In the best case scenario, it is possible to see why judicious alternatives could produce different results. In 2020, for example, the UK Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group...

In 2020, a machine-learning algorithm helped researchers to develop a potent antibiotic that works against many pathogens (see Nature https://doi.org/ggm2p4; 2020). Artificial intelligence (AI), which is used for vaccine development, drug design and materials...

The European Commission announced in late 2020 that research grant recipients would have to include gender and sex analyses in their studies. This could be done by disaggregating data according to sex in cell analysis or looking at how technology might perpetuate...

Six waves of COVID-19 were conducted in Japan. The number of deaths and cases per capita was significantly lower than other G7 countries. This is despite Japan having the oldest population in the world and densely populated. Japan is known for its high rates...

To slow down the global loss of animal and plant species, it will take a lot of money and time. At the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), nations will be expected to agree on an action plan to...

The conflict in Ukraine has created an energy crisis and a resource crisis. Russian exports account to 3.6% of global coal consumption, 7.0% natural gas consumption and 5.8% oil consumption (see Supplementary Information). A large portion of these exports...

The first day of the Russian invasion in Ukraine on February 24, 2002, was a normal drive. My parents had visited me the night before, and I had stayed with them. We talked about the telegram messages that a colleague had sent me detailing the explosions...

Science is a human endeavor that is driven by curiosity and a desire to understand and shape the natural and physical world. Science is also a shared experience. It is subject to both the best of humankind's imagination and creativity. European governments...

Sustainability is now a household word, but it wasn't always that way. The United Nations' Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm fifty years ago. This historic event was the first to recognize sustainable development as an international...

South Korea was faced with two challenges at the end of the Korean War in 1953. It had to rebuild its cities and modernize its mostly agrarian economy. It aimed to become a rapid, agile developer of already profitable technologies. In the 1970s and 1980s,...

The most alarming effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have nothing to do either with health or infections. It's that schools have been closed around the globe, affecting the education of approximately 1.6 billion children. Schools were closed in the majority...

Moscow gave the orders, which took the whole world by surprise. Other governments had not anticipated a militarized invasion on such a scale. They reasoned that it would prove logistically difficult to occupy the territory and that local resistance would...

Unfortunately, there are many types of exploitative research practices. "Helicopter research" is when high-income researchers or those who are otherwise privileged conduct research in lower-income settings. This may include studies with historically marginalized...

It was an unexpected morning on 7 June 2021. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approved aducanumab as the first treatment for b-amyloid protein, which is associated with Alzheimer's disease. While some were happy to see the approval of the first...