Science
Blank Space no more: New Horizons makes it to Pluto
Dr Robin G. Andrews @squigglyvolcano New Horizons probe finds Pluto is more than just an icy ball in space: it’s alive. Well hello there, Pluto. Sorry it took so long. You’re looking great, but I have to be honest with you: we are never ever, ever, getting back together. Despite humanity’s genuinely epic science project finally reaching Pluto, the last outpost of our solar system in the minds of many, we still cannot bring ourselves to welcome back the prodigal...
I-Rex, therefore I am: How to make Jurassic World’s new hybrid dinosaur
Dr Robin Andrews No-one’s interested in dinosaurs anymore, the film seems to say. Jurassic World – the zoo for dinosaurs – has been open for two decades, and seeing dinosaurs has become fairly routine by 2015. In a knowing nod to audiences used to seeing enormous CGI spectacles these days, the scientists in the highly-anticipated summer blockbuster have “cooked up” a new dinosaur to give both the kids and adults nightmares: the Indominus Rex, which means “fierce” or “untameable king”....
Lessons from Biosphere 2
By Guy Dorrell @GuyDorrellEsq Many of us dream of stripping away the complications of modern life, its hectic pace, its technologies, the dependency upon a steady income, and returning to how our distant ancestors must have lived. Of course there are complications and contradictions; few of us want to step back from the availability and efficiency of the NHS or the police, law and judicial system. Fewer still have the resources to step back, while retaining what is good...