Showing 1 - 10 of 860
The fire this time is for US climate science
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 18/03/2026
» In 1953 Ray Bradbury, an American writer, published a book entitled simply Fahrenheit 451. It was a novel about an American fireman in a not-too-distant future who realised that he was doing his job all wrong -- because his job was to burn books, which were banned in that future America. (451°F is the temperature at which paper catches fire.)
Give BMA cooling centres a chance
Editorial, Published on 08/03/2026
» The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's (BMA) initiative providing air-conditioned "cooling centres" may be met with a degree of scepticism but the initiative is an undeniably novel and humane response for a city increasingly pushed to its limits by climate risks -- marked by long summers and more frequent extreme heat events.
When repressive states choose terror over death
News, Alan Clements, Published on 23/01/2026
» Fyodor Dostoevsky -- one of the few writers to survive state terror and return with a psychology sharp enough to indict it.
Not even the penguins were spared
Roger Crutchley, Published on 28/12/2025
» Well, we've just about slithered our way through the Year of the Snake. Suffice to say, 2025 wasn't much fun. At least the previous year we had the "Happy Hippo" which kept us vaguely amused in a daft sort of way.
A good time of the year to chill out
Roger Crutchley, Published on 21/12/2025
» Normally at this stage of the calendar PostScript attempts a festive flavour, welcoming in the season of silly hats and hangovers, but this year it's a real struggle to find something to be festive about. At least the weather has cooperated, the lower temperatures giving us more of a wintry feeling. In that respect it is the most pleasant time of the year.
Where there's Muck there's puffins
Oped, Roger Crutchley, Published on 30/11/2025
» Important news from Northern Ireland. For the first time in more than 25 years puffins have been spotted on the quaintly named Isle of Muck. The isle is a nature reserve on the Antrim coast and derives its unusual name from the adjacent town of Portmuck.
How China won innovation in lieu of freedom
Oped, Jennifer Lind, Published on 28/11/2025
» A decade ago, China's government unveiled Made in China 2025 -- a bold vision for transforming the country from the world's assembly line into a global innovation leader. The plan was met with considerable scepticism, particularly in the West, where a robust scholarly consensus held that authoritarianism was fundamentally incompatible with innovation. China was light-years behind the global frontier. Barring drastic political change, many observers concluded, China would remain a "copycat nation".
Socialism's novel brand of nomenclature
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 18/11/2025
» On Nov 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall collapsed. On a very ordinary night, thousands of East Germans started crossing the dividing barrier between the communist East and capitalist West Berlin after the East German regime had suddenly opened tightly controlled border crossings. In a matter of hours, history was made. Throngs of people soon swamped the Wall and then started smashing the hated communist barrier into concrete rubble.
How to give expert advice in transformational times
Oped, Robert Lempert, Published on 11/11/2025
» I am a policy analyst. My job is to provide expert information to decision makers and the public to help improve public policy. This job, always hard, has become harder.
A paradigm shift for animal tests
Oped, Peter Singer & Sankalpa Ghose, Published on 17/10/2025
» Even in an era of intense political polarisation, there are still moments when a bipartisan consensus can emerge around important ethical issues. One such moment is happening now. Last April, the United States Food and Drug Administration released its "Roadmap to Reducing Animal Testing in Preclinical Safety Studies". The FDA said that it was taking "a groundbreaking step" that would advance public health and limit wasteful expenditure by replacing animal testing with "more effective, human-relevant methods".