The Conversation

In the middle of the night, invisible to anyone but special telescopes in two Chinese observatories, satellite Micius sends particles of light to Earth to establish the world’s most secure communication link. Named after the ancient Chinese philosopher also known as Mozi, Micius is the world’s first quantum communications satellite… »

Such is the aura still surrounding Charles Dickens that it is no surprise readers want to mark the 150th anniversary of his death in June 1870, even in the middle of a desperate global public health crisis. While this impulse to show one’s admiration of – and gratitude to – deceased… »

Now is the moment to transition away from an economic system that thrives on exploitation. The Covid-19 pandemic is tearing the neoliberal playbook apart as politicians and citizens realise that, in times of pandemic, markets won’t save the day. The privatisation-deregulation-austerity recipe is becoming obsolete, leaving ways for a diversity of interventionist… »

The scene was intense. Black residents of Minneapolis angered over an incident of police brutality fought with officers in the streets and set buildings ablaze. Many were injured; dozens were arrested. Eventually the National Guard, called in to patrol the streets, ordered black citizens back into their homes. This may sound… »

In June 1348, people in England began reporting mysterious symptoms. They started off as mild and vague: headaches, aches, and nausea. This was followed by painful black lumps, or buboes, growing in the armpits and groin, which gave the disease its name: bubonic plague. The last stage was a high… »

The University of Cambridge has announced that all lectures will be offered online for the academic year beginning in October 2020. Other UK universities are expected to adopt similar policies, adopting a format which blends online learning with more traditional teaching. The announcement has disappointed and worried some students, who are… »

One part of widespread measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has been the temporary closure of schools. In the UK, they have been closed since March, but the government has recently announced plans for the phased reopening of schools in England from June 1. This has prompted fierce criticism… »

In the kitchen drawer, most of us have a few old mobile phones and tablets. But few probably realise just how much precious metal they contain. Did you know, for example, that it only takes around 41 mobile phones to recover 1g of gold? The price of gold is currently… »

A few months ago, most people had never heard of the R number. Now, thanks to the novel coronavirus, we all know – or think we know – what it means. R is the reproduction number of an infectious disease – basically how many people one infected person will transmit… »

There are 102 candidate vaccines being explored as a means of ending the COVID-19 pandemic, as of April 30. Eight of these have already made it to clinical trials in humans, and another 94 are in the pre-clinical evaluation stage. These candidates also fall into eight different categories of… »