Daniel Rourke /stream

• Bookmark Nature, nurture and liberal values

  Biology determines our behaviour more than it suits many to acknowledge. But people—and politics and morality—cannot be described just by neural impulses

  January 25 2012, 10:35am | Comments

• Twitter Favourites

  Cross-section of a tree played like a record on a turntable

  January 19 2012, 7:54am | Comments

• Bookmark Kids, unlike adults, think technology is fundamentally human

  With children so easy to embrace robotics, it’s clear that there’s a ton of potential for integrating intelligent technologies into learning environments. Besides, the idea of “exploring and creating” sounds a…

  January 19 2012, 2:13am | Comments

• Twitter Favourites

  Rereading Darwin

  January 17 2012, 5:06pm | Comments

• YouTube

  January 15 2012, 3:49pm | Comments

• Bookmark It’s Only Humanist

  To me it tastes like a desire to locate man’s place in a world that he perceives primarily with the aid of machines. The art of the Greeks has been used…

  January 4 2012, 9:16am | Comments

• Portfolio Noise; Mutation; Autonomy: A Mark on Crusoe’s Island

  December 7 2011, 8:50am | Comments

• Bookmark What happens to a caterpillar's brain during metamorphosis?

  Basically, three things can happen to any given neuron in the central nervous system. It's a really complex proccess! A) some neurons are born very early in the caterpillar's life (embryonically)…

  November 30 2011, 11:50am | Comments

• Bookmark Neanderthal Neuroscience

  As scientists began to build a database of human DNA in the 1990s, it became possible to test these ideas with genes. In his talk, Paabo described how he and his…

  November 21 2011, 2:09am | Comments

• Tumblr nevver: The Cephalopoda

  November 8 2011, 12:04pm | Comments

• Bookmark The Scariest Zombies in Nature

  Once the fungus invades its victim’s body, it’s already too late. The invader spreads through the host in a matter of days. The victim, unaware of what is happening, becomes driven…

  October 29 2011, 4:45pm | Comments

• Bookmark Is mental time travel what makes us human?

  A stonishing animals show up everywhere these days. Cooperative apes, grief-stricken elephants, empathetic cats and dogs crowd our bookshop shelves. It’s all the rage to plumb the cognitive and emotional depths…

  October 28 2011, 10:32am | Comments

• YouTube

  October 2 2011, 2:40pm | Comments

• Tumblr (Quote) "What is an enemy, who is he to us, and how must we deal with him? Another way to put…

  “What is an enemy, who is he to us, and how must we deal with him? Another way to put it, for example, is: What is cancer? - a growing collection of malignant cells that we must at all costs expel, excise, reject? Or…

  September 14 2011, 5:01am | Comments

• Bibliography The Logic of Life by Francois Jacob

  August 31 2011, 7:31am | Comments

• Twitter Favourites

  Implications of 'uplifting'

  August 30 2011, 5:52am | Comments

• Tumblr (Quote) Michel Serres, The Natural Contract

  “Suppose two speakers, determined to contradict each other. As violent as their confrontation may be, as long as they are willing to continue the discussion they must speak a common language in order for the dialogue to take place. There can’t be an argument…

  August 9 2011, 5:36am | Comments

• Tumblr Best guess for this image: giant isopod

  August 3 2011, 1:28am | Comments

• Bookmark On Discovering Life

  There is an aspect of life sciences that has been largely absent: the confrontation of fundamental questions of biology much as particle accelerators grapple with fundamental questions of physics. The roll…

  July 27 2011, 3:05pm | Comments

• Bookmark What's human? What's animal? And what of the biology in between?

  Friday's report by the Academy of Medical Sciences on the increasingly fuzzy boundaries between the human and the animal is the latest in a long series of policy reflections on how…

  July 25 2011, 3:20pm | Comments

• Bookmark Regulations proposed for animal–human chimaeras

  The increasingly sophisticated blending of different species to create chimaeras is pushing biology into a new ethical dimension. Last year, scientists used new stem-cell technologies to create a mouse with a…

  July 22 2011, 1:30am | Comments

• Tumblr (Quote) Michel Serres, The Birth of Physics

  “Nothing new under the reign of the same and under the same reign, preserved. Nothing new and nothing to be born, no nature. This is death, eternally. Nature put to death, its birth unwanted. The science of this is nothing. It is calculably nothing.…

  July 7 2011, 12:03pm | Comments

• Wikipedia Clinamen Clinamen is the Latin name Lucretius gave to the unpredictable swerve of atoms, in the atomistic doctrine of Epicurus. According to Lucretius, the unpredictable swerve occurs "at no fixed place or time": When atoms move straight down through the void by their own…

  July 7 2011, 11:15am | Comments

• Bookmark Heaven for Atheists

  It’s human nature, I suppose, to want to survive, to resist succumbing to the same fate all living things do. It’s the reason we write books, create art, have children—we’re hardwired…

  July 4 2011, 9:01am | Comments

• Bookmark A Home Before the End of the World

  Our ignorance is truly staggering. According to some estimates, 95 percent of organisms in the soil alone are unknown to science. Many of them labor unseen, in the dark, serving as…

  June 29 2011, 4:11pm | Comments

• Wikipedia Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth Risks to civilization, humans, and planet Earth are existential risks that could threaten humankind as a whole, have adverse consequences for the course of human civilization, or even cause the end of planet Earth.[1] The concept is expressed in various phrases such as…

  June 26 2011, 11:00am | Comments

• Bookmark Being human

  Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this…

  June 25 2011, 8:55am | Comments

• Bookmark Perfection Is Not A Useful Concept

  Interview with Nick Bostrom Our long track record of survival–humans have been around for about 100,000 years–gives us some assurance that the natural risks have been rather small. If they have…

  June 20 2011, 9:21am | Comments

• Wikipedia Experiments in the Revival of Organisms Experiments in the Revival of Organisms is a 1940 motion picture which documents Soviet research into the resuscitation of clinically dead organisms. It is available from the Prelinger Archives, and it is in the public domain. The British scientist J. B. S. Haldane…

  June 15 2011, 9:12am | Comments

• Bookmark Man Is Not Cat Food

  In the last decade, human vanity has taken a major hit. Traits once thought to be uniquely, even definingly human have turned up in the repertoire of animal behaviors: tool use,…

  June 12 2011, 8:12am | Comments

• Bookmark This will be the Century of Disasters

  A half-mile wide twister tore through Joplin, Mo., on Sunday, killing nearly 100. The tornado was one of 68 reported across seven states this weekend. Unfortunately, this century will be a…

  May 25 2011, 3:52am | Comments

• Portfolio Headless Research

  May 15 2011, 10:26am | Comments

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6

• Bookmark Nature, nurture and liberal values

  Biology determines our behaviour more than it suits many to acknowledge. But people—and politics and morality—cannot be described just by neural impulses

  January 25 2012, 10:35am | Comments

• Twitter Favourites

  Cross-section of a tree played like a record on a turntable

  January 19 2012, 7:54am | Comments

• Bookmark Kids, unlike adults, think technology is fundamentally human

  With children so easy to embrace robotics, it’s clear that there’s a ton of potential for integrating intelligent technologies into learning environments. Besides, the idea of “exploring and creating” sounds a…

  January 19 2012, 2:13am | Comments

• Twitter Favourites

  Rereading Darwin

  January 17 2012, 5:06pm | Comments

• YouTube

  January 15 2012, 3:49pm | Comments

• Bookmark It’s Only Humanist

  To me it tastes like a desire to locate man’s place in a world that he perceives primarily with the aid of machines. The art of the Greeks has been used…

  January 4 2012, 9:16am | Comments

• Portfolio Noise; Mutation; Autonomy: A Mark on Crusoe’s Island

  December 7 2011, 8:50am | Comments

• Bookmark What happens to a caterpillar's brain during metamorphosis?

  Basically, three things can happen to any given neuron in the central nervous system. It's a really complex proccess! A) some neurons are born very early in the caterpillar's life (embryonically)…

  November 30 2011, 11:50am | Comments

• Bookmark Neanderthal Neuroscience

  As scientists began to build a database of human DNA in the 1990s, it became possible to test these ideas with genes. In his talk, Paabo described how he and his…

  November 21 2011, 2:09am | Comments

• Tumblr nevver: The Cephalopoda

  November 8 2011, 12:04pm | Comments

• Bookmark The Scariest Zombies in Nature

  Once the fungus invades its victim’s body, it’s already too late. The invader spreads through the host in a matter of days. The victim, unaware of what is happening, becomes driven…

  October 29 2011, 4:45pm | Comments

• Bookmark Is mental time travel what makes us human?

  A stonishing animals show up everywhere these days. Cooperative apes, grief-stricken elephants, empathetic cats and dogs crowd our bookshop shelves. It’s all the rage to plumb the cognitive and emotional depths…

  October 28 2011, 10:32am | Comments

• YouTube

  October 2 2011, 2:40pm | Comments

• Tumblr (Quote) "What is an enemy, who is he to us, and how must we deal with him? Another way to put…

  “What is an enemy, who is he to us, and how must we deal with him? Another way to put it, for example, is: What is cancer? - a growing collection of malignant cells that we must at all costs expel, excise, reject? Or…

  September 14 2011, 5:01am | Comments

• Bibliography The Logic of Life by Francois Jacob

  August 31 2011, 7:31am | Comments

• Twitter Favourites

  Implications of 'uplifting'

  August 30 2011, 5:52am | Comments

• Tumblr (Quote) Michel Serres, The Natural Contract

  “Suppose two speakers, determined to contradict each other. As violent as their confrontation may be, as long as they are willing to continue the discussion they must speak a common language in order for the dialogue to take place. There can’t be an argument…

  August 9 2011, 5:36am | Comments

• Tumblr Best guess for this image: giant isopod

  August 3 2011, 1:28am | Comments

• Bookmark On Discovering Life

  There is an aspect of life sciences that has been largely absent: the confrontation of fundamental questions of biology much as particle accelerators grapple with fundamental questions of physics. The roll…

  July 27 2011, 3:05pm | Comments

• Bookmark What's human? What's animal? And what of the biology in between?

  Friday's report by the Academy of Medical Sciences on the increasingly fuzzy boundaries between the human and the animal is the latest in a long series of policy reflections on how…

  July 25 2011, 3:20pm | Comments

• Bookmark Regulations proposed for animal–human chimaeras

  The increasingly sophisticated blending of different species to create chimaeras is pushing biology into a new ethical dimension. Last year, scientists used new stem-cell technologies to create a mouse with a…

  July 22 2011, 1:30am | Comments

• Tumblr (Quote) Michel Serres, The Birth of Physics

  “Nothing new under the reign of the same and under the same reign, preserved. Nothing new and nothing to be born, no nature. This is death, eternally. Nature put to death, its birth unwanted. The science of this is nothing. It is calculably nothing.…

  July 7 2011, 12:03pm | Comments

• Wikipedia Clinamen Clinamen is the Latin name Lucretius gave to the unpredictable swerve of atoms, in the atomistic doctrine of Epicurus. According to Lucretius, the unpredictable swerve occurs "at no fixed place or time": When atoms move straight down through the void by their own…

  July 7 2011, 11:15am | Comments

• Bookmark Heaven for Atheists

  It’s human nature, I suppose, to want to survive, to resist succumbing to the same fate all living things do. It’s the reason we write books, create art, have children—we’re hardwired…

  July 4 2011, 9:01am | Comments

• Bookmark A Home Before the End of the World

  Our ignorance is truly staggering. According to some estimates, 95 percent of organisms in the soil alone are unknown to science. Many of them labor unseen, in the dark, serving as…

  June 29 2011, 4:11pm | Comments

• Wikipedia Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth Risks to civilization, humans, and planet Earth are existential risks that could threaten humankind as a whole, have adverse consequences for the course of human civilization, or even cause the end of planet Earth.[1] The concept is expressed in various phrases such as…

  June 26 2011, 11:00am | Comments

• Bookmark Being human

  Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this…

  June 25 2011, 8:55am | Comments

• Bookmark Perfection Is Not A Useful Concept

  Interview with Nick Bostrom Our long track record of survival–humans have been around for about 100,000 years–gives us some assurance that the natural risks have been rather small. If they have…

  June 20 2011, 9:21am | Comments

• Wikipedia Experiments in the Revival of Organisms Experiments in the Revival of Organisms is a 1940 motion picture which documents Soviet research into the resuscitation of clinically dead organisms. It is available from the Prelinger Archives, and it is in the public domain. The British scientist J. B. S. Haldane…

  June 15 2011, 9:12am | Comments

• Bookmark Man Is Not Cat Food

  In the last decade, human vanity has taken a major hit. Traits once thought to be uniquely, even definingly human have turned up in the repertoire of animal behaviors: tool use,…

  June 12 2011, 8:12am | Comments

• Bookmark This will be the Century of Disasters

  A half-mile wide twister tore through Joplin, Mo., on Sunday, killing nearly 100. The tornado was one of 68 reported across seven states this weekend. Unfortunately, this century will be a…

  May 25 2011, 3:52am | Comments

• Portfolio Headless Research

  May 15 2011, 10:26am | Comments

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