The dodgy science of wiping your backsideWilliam Reville: Predatory journals can contaminate scientific literatureThu Sept 20 2018 - 01:00
Biological elitism: the result of tinkering with human genomes?Despite ethical unease, germ-line modification will surely find mainstream acceptanceThu Sept 06 2018 - 07:00
How human cells can be reprogrammed to renew our bodiesScientists hope to use pluripotent stem cells to replace organs that have failedThu Aug 16 2018 - 01:00
Are genetically modified organisms safe?Green criticism has undermined public and political confidence in GMOs but science proves they are no riskier than more traditional methodsThu Aug 02 2018 - 00:00
Suicide: the best strategies attempting to counter this major problemWe have been surprisingly passive in Ireland in responding to issueThu Jul 19 2018 - 01:00
Searching for planets beyond our solar systemThe discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence would be truly transcendingThu Jul 05 2018 - 01:00
Next big debate in Ireland will be about assisted suicideDo you agree that all lucid adults should have the legal right to end their own lives?Thu Jun 21 2018 - 01:00
How to live 10 years longerFive lifestyle practices can dramatically lower mortality rates, research showsThu Jun 07 2018 - 06:00
First drinking ‘protects your heart’. Then it ‘shortens your life’. Who to believe?Health researchers should tread carefully to avoid the alcohol-guidelines morassThu May 17 2018 - 01:00
The power and the limits of scienceScience’s success in understanding the natural world motivates some scientists to claim that it is all-powerful and will eventually explain absolutely everythingThu Apr 26 2018 - 14:05
Paul Kammerer may have been an honest scientistRecent re-examination of his work suggests that he may have discovered epigenetic inheritance, a phenomenon not recognised until long after his deathThu Apr 12 2018 - 15:54
Hopes for successful obesity treatment flicker at last‘Quite simply, we have found support for the existence of internal bathroom scales’Thu Mar 29 2018 - 16:08
When government is the biggest funder of scientific endeavourThe formula for optimum distribution of funding between basic and applied research is not being applied at presentMon Mar 12 2018 - 11:25
To bee or not to bee‘Much more attention must be paid to how beehives are deployed and account must be taken of the effect on local pollinators’Thu Feb 22 2018 - 15:11
Why producing bulls**t requires few convictionsScience is not immune to allure of BS, and we’re not as good at detecting it as we thinkThu Feb 15 2018 - 03:00
Explaining consciousness: the mind-matter connectionThe old answer to the problem of how the world existed before the advent of conscious observers was that God was watching itThu Feb 01 2018 - 00:00
Which to choose, burial or cremation?We should not allow cremation to drive cemeteries out of existence and to hide death from usMon Jan 15 2018 - 14:16
The problem with mollycoddling university studentsHigher education is to broaden horizons, not to simply embrace a homogenous view of the worldThu Dec 21 2017 - 00:00
Why we believe what we want to believeMany people have a deep-seated and powerful emotional need to support their favourite ideology or worldviewTue Dec 19 2017 - 12:26
Dedicated followers of fissionNational Children’s Science Centre is aimed at stimulating children’s natural curiosity and encouraging them to explore and discoverThu Nov 30 2017 - 14:30
How best to persuade people who do not accept scientific consensusSince emotion plays a large part in motivating those who reject the consensus, then science communicators should also use emotion in making their caseThu Nov 09 2017 - 16:44
Self-driving cars will overtake human drivers in no timeWilliam Reville: As software improves, the supremacy of such vehicles will become clearThu Nov 02 2017 - 06:00
Learning the truth of educationSchools are viewed as instruments of social engineering as much as institutions for the transmission of knowledgeThu Oct 12 2017 - 17:42
Plunging sperm counts provoke alarmScientist warns continued sperm count decline in men ‘may lead to human extinction’Tue Sept 26 2017 - 15:13
Is the current effort to combat climate change a utopian project?Why the changes to human behaviour necessary to ease climate change will have to be directed by governmentThu Sept 14 2017 - 11:27
Equal opportunities for female academics requires social and structural changeA formula must be devised to ensure women are not handicapped in the promotion stakes because of time devoted to having and raising childrenFri Sept 01 2017 - 11:09
Democracy in danger – what to doWilliam Reville: Why politicians should increasingly justify policies on moral rather than economic or electoral groundsThu Aug 17 2017 - 01:00
The penis story that didn’t stand upWilliam Reville: Reputable social science journal fell for paper ‘deliberately constructed to be complete, comical nonsense’Fri Jul 21 2017 - 11:30
Why does the death of a pet matter to us so much?We were unprepared for the level of grief that struck us after Milo diedThu Jul 20 2017 - 15:14
Obedience to authority: most of us would follow orders to do terrible thingsAlarming findings by Prof Stanley Milgram of Yale University have since been confirmed in many studiesFri Jun 30 2017 - 10:54
The Nazis believed in medical ethics. But they were a twisted, depraved versionNotions of ethnic purity and exclusion are still with us. We must remain vigilantThu Jun 15 2017 - 05:00
Does torture work? Trump says yes, but science says noMore than 80 per cent endorse torture if they are personally close to the victimsThu Jun 01 2017 - 12:47
Reaching for the starsThe Breakthrough Starshot programme is the brainchild of Yuri Milner, Russian-born Silicon Valley billionaire-physicistThu May 18 2017 - 01:00
Winning the battle against AnorexiaWilliam Reville: Although anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, the statistics are encouragingThu May 04 2017 - 06:00
Public's grasp of basic scientific facts is shakyA push to dispel suspicions of things such as pesticides has had little effectThu Apr 20 2017 - 16:39
The biggest question: why is there something rather than nothing?Some physicists claim the universe sprang spontaneously out of nothing at all about 13.5 billion years agoThu Apr 06 2017 - 16:29
Fears of robots stealing our jobs are misplacedIt was feared ATMs would displace bank tellers. However, deployment of ATMs reduces bank running costs, allowing banks to open more branchesThu Mar 16 2017 - 01:00
'Exercise alone has little effect on weight. You must reduce your food intake'William Reville: Studies show hunter-gatherers burn no more calories a day than sedentary office workersThu Mar 02 2017 - 12:00
Bring back rote learning, predictive text means lazy brainsWe need to combat technology-induced lazy brain syndrome caused by texting and calculatorsThu Feb 02 2017 - 01:00
Let’s talk about the link between immigration and low reproduction ratesHow did we lose the will to replace ourselves and, knowing the demographic consequences of losing that will, can we reclaim it?Thu Jan 19 2017 - 01:00
Where did Earth’s water come from?William Reville: The discovery of vast reservoirs of water deep within the Earth is an example of the power of science to excite wonderThu Jan 05 2017 - 01:00
How long will the human species survive on Earth?David Grinspoon’s new book highlights the self-imposed and natural threats to survivalThu Dec 08 2016 - 19:18
William Reville: Science needs to remain freePublic control could allow ideological or economic forces to distort a rational agendaThu Dec 01 2016 - 10:44
William Reville: Could our brains live forever by being uploaded to a computer?If it were possible, would it be desirableTue Nov 15 2016 - 12:00
Neanderthal wipeout: was love or war to blame?William Reville: One theory proposes that they were assimilated into modern human stock by interbreedingThu Nov 03 2016 - 01:00
Are LGBT people born that way? It’s unclearA controversial study of sexuality and gender claims to focus solely on the scientific evidenceTue Oct 18 2016 - 00:00
William Reville: Eugenics is wrong about Down syndromeHow do people with Down syndrome feel when they hear predictions of the elimination of their kind?Wed Oct 05 2016 - 14:30
Could a chimpanzee be guilty of murder?Since 95 per cent of human DNA is identical to that of a chimpanzee, do chimps have a sense of morality?Thu Sept 15 2016 - 10:27
William Reville: Copernicus might have been wrong about EarthA computer model has found Earth to be uniquely suited to life among 700 million trillion terrestrial planetsThu Sept 01 2016 - 01:00
The futility of vaginal speakers for the unbornDespite an industry around it, no research data shows that playing music to babies in the womb will boost IQThu Aug 18 2016 - 12:28
