Rocket lifting off

Michio Kaku picks five books to help you understand the future

From medicine to space travel, these works explore how the newest wave of science will transform society. Science is the engine of prosperity. From the industrial revolution (powered by the steam engine), to the electric revolution (which lit up our cities), to the current computer revolution (which connects us all), science creates wealth and progress. […]

Alan Turing's Report Card

Alan Turing’s school report reveals little of his genius

Items from codebreaker’s life and death go on display at Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.   In 1929, a teenager’s end-of-term report noted that his English reading was weak, his French prose was very weak, his essays grandiose beyond his abilities, and his mathematical promise undermined by his untidy work. The report gave few clues that […]

Under the skin: how insertable microchips could unlock the future

Volunteers in Melbourne have had microchips inserted for three months, designed to unlock doors and carry out other tasks. Will they really be any use?   The microchip is about the size of a grain of rice and usually inserted in the webbing between the thumb and forefinger using a needle the same thickness as […]

Children’s books with humans have greater moral impact than animals, study finds

Undercutting the ageless tradition of sugaring ethical lessons with endearing animals, new research suggests human protagonists are needed to change behaviour.   Forget the morals that millennia of children have learned from the Hare and the Tortoise and the Fox and the Crow: Aesop would have had a greater effect with his fables if hed […]