A molecular window into speech and language
Our capacity for complex speech and language remains one of the most intriguing aspects of being human. It has long been suspected that some answers to this enigma will be found buried within the genome. With recent advances in genetic technologies, ....
More details | Watch nowMapping memory: the brains behind remembering
Historically memory research has focussed on the hippocampus, a structure deep in the brain's temporal lobes. Damage to the hippocampus is known to have a devastating impact on the ability to form new memories as well as compromising recollection of ....
More details | Watch nowTaming the Quanta
Devices are now reaching the realm where individual structures are made up of only a few atoms so that quantum mechanics, the theory of the very small, is playing a crucial role. The inevitable quantum fluctuations produce noise which was initially e....
More details | Watch nowPlant and animal communication
Organisms of all kinds use signals comprising minute amounts of natural chemicals. The exploitation of semiochemicals is demonstrated with dramatic success in the management of pests and parasitic weeds in resource-poor East African cereal farming.
More details | Watch nowHard questions: Contemporary art and the obsession with science
Siƒn Ede looks at the work of a number of leading artists who have engaged with contemporary science, whether robustly or subtly, in order to reflect a different and sometimes bizarre take on new ideas.
More details | Watch nowFrom proteins to drugs
The normal proteins which circulate in human blood are either known or presumed to have beneficial functions. However normal immunity and inflammation proteins can cause or exacerbate disease in addition to helping to resist infections.
More details | Watch nowRaman Microscopy, Pigments and the Arts/Science Interface
Raman spectroscopy is a light scattering technique primarily used in the characterisation of vibrational modes of molecules and therefore in assessing the structure and composition of materials.
More details | Watch nowThe House of Wisdom and the legacy of Arabic Science
In a way that never took place with early Christianity, the spread of Islam heralded a remarkable period of scientific advances, particularly during the golden age of the Abbasids of Baghdad between the 8th and 11th centuries AD.
More details | Watch nowDecoding consciousness
Everything we know about the world comes to us through our brain. Yet for each of us our own conscious mental world of thoughts and feelings is isolated and private. Despite centuries of research, language or gesture remains the only way we can disco....
More details | Watch nowThe uses of infinity: a philosopher looks at emergent phenomena in physics
Emergence, and its contrary, reduction, are buzz-words in both physics and philosophy. Both physicists and philosophers disagree about the extent to which we can understand large-scale or complex phenomena in terms of their microscopic parts.
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