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Although the suggestion eighty years ago that four in ten scientists did not believe in God or an afterlife was astounding to contemporaries, the fact that so many scientists believe in God today is equally surprising.
Proposals by a school board in California to recognize the dialect used by most of its pupils unleashed a ferocious media attack. Why did the press get things so wrong, and why were the proposals so virulently ridiculed?
The electron is 100 years old this year. Of all the elementary particles, it is by far the most familiar, useful and venerable. But is it elementary? And what other particles are elementary?
What are the implications for humankind of the astounding report two weeks ago of the production of viable sheep from adult cells? The moral imperative of preserving human dignity must remain paramount.
Ten years have passed since the now famous American Physical Society meeting that heard the first breathless accounts of high-temperature superconductivity. Now, in calmer times, practical applications are emerging.
Should archaeological remains be returned to the cultures from which they were removed? We should consider the needs of researchers and wider society as well as acknowledging the sensibilities of indigenous communities.
Basic researchers in Britain and elsewhere must become more informed about science policy and more active as campaigners if their profession is to survive. Useful lessons can be learned from colleagues in the United States.
Scientists who work in biomedical fields cannot be objective observers of processes that go on in their own bodies. What is the rational solution to this dilemma?
Forty years ago, the world of physics was stunned by the discovery that nuclear beta-decay does not respect symmetry between left and right. But the credit for this conclusion has not been properly attributed.
Fourteen cases of new-variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease have so far been confirmed in the United Kingdom. Are they the start of an epidemic? If so, how informative will cases in the next few years be in predicting its course?
