Science

Wednesday 8th February

Still fatally flawed – the proposed NHS for England

Lord Owen, 8 February 2012
David Cameron should respect the evidence and stop the unamendable Health and Social Care Bill, says former health minister Lord David Owen
Tuesday 31st January

How to create political space for climate action?

Eivind Hoff, 31 January 2012
Greener politics should fit with more social politics. But as environmental policies have emerged in the neoliberal era, they have been shaped by it. Those fighting for a greener world must look beyond these narrow policies, to help create the pre-conditions necessary for radical change.
Friday 20th January

The Great Partnership: multiculturalism, faith and citizenship

Robin Llewellyn, 20 January 2012
Do the supposedly civilised values of human rights and responsible citizenry become exclusionary, used to divide rather than unite? Is religion a partner of liberty? On the day the British parliament considers a bill proposing the banning of headscarves in public places, Robin Llewellyn reviews Jonathan Sacks' ‘The Great Partnership: God, Science, and the Search for Meaning’
Monday 2nd January

Dilbert's presidential bid: is technocracy dressed up as libertarianism the natural political home of the engineer?

James Warner, 2 January 2012

Szczekociny festival poster All rights reserved

The definitive U.S. comic strip of the last two decades features workplace alienation, managerial dysfunction, and socio-economic stratification. Last month its creator announced he's running for President as an independent. His candidacy may not be serious, but how about his policies?
Friday 16th December

Science and the corporate university in Britain

Stuart Parkinson, 16 December 2011
The instrumentalisation of research and successive governments' preoccupation with 'impact' have gradually eroded the independence of British academia. Business and politics alike are narrowing funding and skewing outcomes.
Thursday 1st December

HIV: of bombs and banks and transformation...

Alice Welbourn, 1 December 2011
Thirty years into the AIDS pandemic, an AIDS-free generation is in our grasp at last. Alice Welbourn asks whether we are really going to let it vanish, thanks to the aggressive traits of financiers and governments ?

Let’s get real: female sexual pleasure and HIV prevention

Tsitsi B Masvawure, 1 December 2011
The dominant HIV intervention response assumes that HIV transmission only occurs in contexts of danger and violation. It is time to take into account young women’s actual sexual experiences and recognise that sex is also a positive and joyous experience, however unsettling this may be for the HIV prevention community, says Tsitsi Masvawure.
Monday 28th November

Durban: failure will be success (again)

Simon Zadek, 28 November 2011
There is no global deal nor any chance of one at Durban's COP17. Fortunately, "Plan B", predicted by the author after COP15, is looking feasible and even healthy. Welcome a profusion of national, regional and city initiatives to save us from devastating climate change

Will neuroscientific understanding undermine our sense of self?

Rachael Panizzo, 28 November 2011
Reporting on more and more experiments that predict action before conscious intention, Nature, the leading science journal, ran the sensationalist headline: "Neuroscience vs philosophy: Taking aim at free will". But is there really such a stark distinction? What applies to an a quasi-automated actions in the laboratory may have nothing to do with complex, socially mediated choices
Sunday 27th November

Derren Brown, Hallowed Be Thy Name

Marius Brill, 27 November 2011
The success of TV conjuror Derren Brown tells of our vulnerability to the magic of pseudo-scientific explanation. While researching the brilliant comic novel, How to Forget, the author joined the ranks of the conjurors and came away with a degree of healthy dis-illusion
Friday 18th November

Giant strides or fairy footsteps

Simon Maxwell, 18 November 2011
How much progress can be made in tackling climate change without a global deal?
Thursday 10th November

A fair COP

Damian Rafferty, 10 November 2011
The author prepares to attend the UN Climate Change Summit, COP17, in Durban, and wonders if there is any solution to this particular version of the Prisoner's Dilemma
Tuesday 8th November

Lines of descent

Derek Gregory, 8 November 2011
To mark one hundred years of aerial bombing, we publish this detailed account of the path that led us from bombing cities, forests and target boxes to putting 'warheads on foreheads' in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Derek Gregory argues that our understanding of bombing has been dominated by political and military historians who focus on strategy and social historians who recover the experiences of those who were bombed. But that today the gap between the two – the kill-chain – is too important to be left to buffs and geeks. Read Gregory’s introduction – The American way of bombing: and visit our Shock and Awe conference page.
Sunday 6th November

The road to Europe: defend the biosphere and stop punishing the innocent

Susan George, 6 November 2011
Imagine that the world is governed by concentric circles or spheres of power, with the most powerful one on the outside. Today the innermost circle is a neglected biosphere. We have to turn the paradigm inside out. The biosphere must come first.
Thursday 3rd November

He’d take his medicine if only they’d bring it: mental health care in a British prison

Lydia Smith, 3 November 2011
Prison is failing those incarcerated who suffer from mental health problems. This personal story is one harrowing example.
Thursday 27th October

The American way of bombing?

Derek Gregory, 27 October 2011
‘Signature targets’ are ghostly traces of the ‘target signatures’ that once animated the electronic battlefield. Commentators have often drawn comparisons between the wars in Vietnam and in Afghanistan, but if Vietnam was a ‘quagmire’ then the air wars over Afghanistan-Pakistan threaten to create a vortex. See the Closing Session of the Shock and Awe conference.

Mad men, nuclear pasts, human futures

Paul Rogers, 27 October 2011
The dismantling of a powerful nuclear bomb closes a chapter of the cold war. But the choices and responsibilities embedded in the story of the B53 make this a 21st-century story too.
Monday 24th October

Dear UK Parliamentarians, here’s how 3 children will fare if you let the Health and Social Care Bill pass

OurKingdom, 24 October 2011
Five leading children’s doctors present case studies to illuminate the Bill’s likely impact on child health in England.
Saturday 8th October

Public servants and private chats about dumping nuclear waste in West Cumbria

Michael Baron, 8 October 2011
A public consultation is underway on the construction of an underground dump for 70 tonnes of nuclear waste in West Cumbria. Has the decision already been taken during cozy chats in private rooms?
Tuesday 4th October

Debunking Lansley: on patient choice and the NHS reforms

Wendy Savage, 4 October 2011
Professor Savage drafted the 'Good Medical Practice' guidelines. Here, she argues that the Coalition's health reforms will prevent doctors in England from fulfilling their duties to their patients.
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