Citizen science means there’s something for everyone to do
Science and Technology
Cock-A-Doodle-Don’t
An assistant professor of design in America has come up with a radical idea to improve chickens’ lives in battery cages – give them virtual reality headsets. Austin Stewart has created a game called “Second Livestock”, where chickens can roam a virtual field and supposedly enjoy all the perks of free range living while still in cages. The technology has not been implemented, and would need extensive ethics approval, but Stewart believes it could open up a conversation on animal husbandry.
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Review: Brain vs World
Beer lover’s favourite science festival Pint of Science comes back, with insight into new and exciting research in the field of Psychology. Three researchers from our Uni explained how they are pushing the frontiers of their respective fields, and why studying the human mind is so important.
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Let Science Be Great Again
Michaela Barton on how the scientific fact isn’t alternative enough for Trump.
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Real-Life Inception: The Bizarre World of False Memories
We all know that memories can be flawed, but just how malleable they are has come to the forefront of psychological investigation in recent years. The investigation of false memory was pioneered by Elizabeth Loftus. In her 1994 study, a quarter of participants were convinced that they had been lost in a shopping mall as a child, despite none of them actually having this experience.
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Remove All My Organs and Replace Them with Spinach
If any doubt remained over whether spinach truly is the most versatile salad ingredient, sceptics should look no further than a thrilling development in biomedical engineering that has seen the humble little leaf take centre stage this month. Brace yourselves, because this classic super-food just got a whole lot more super – scientists at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in America have found a way to convert the spinach leaf into human heart tissue.
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The Einstein Factor
The world’s favourite physicist Albert Einstein is being portrayed once more in pop culture, this time with a new TV show based on his life. Genius arrived on our television screens at the end of April, and aims to “move past his scientific contributions”. This isn’t the first time that a hugely important scientist has had a depiction made of their lives which brushes over the work that made them famous – The Theory of Everything has also been criticised for overlooking the breakthroughs of Stephen Hawking.
