Society

What are newspapers for? The answer, of course, is not just to tell us what’s going on and explain the implications, but also to select the most important items from the background noise. Over the last few years, though, we’ve started to get our news in a different way: through Google, where selections are made on the basis of a constantly evolving algorithm, and through social media sites where news stories are recommended by friends. Throughout this change, Google has argued vociferously that it is not a publisher. Particularly in Europe, issues such as privacy, copyright and the right to be forgotten have led it to claim that it’s simply a

If you’ve glanced at a newspaper in the last few months you’ll have noticed that obesity is public health enemy number one. The Guardian has a special section devoted to it – seriously. Its mantra is: ‘Britain is in the grip of an obesity crisis.’ In 2007 the National Obesity Forum issued a report which predicted that half of the population will be obese by 2050; now they are saying that was an underestimate. That’s all well and good, but it’s not much use knowing that we’re in the midst of an epidemic if the tools we use to diagnose obesity aren’t up to scratch. Everyone knows about the BMI (body mass

Some exciting news about the future of medicine was announced today. Unfortunately, you really need a degree in biochemistry – which I certainly don’t have – to understand it. But we’d better get used to that, because the eradication of nasty diseases is increasingly a project for geneticists whose findings are difficult to grasp (but easy to misunderstand). Editas, described as a ‘leading genome editing company’, has announced the highlights of the 18th annual meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) in New Orleans. Here’s just one of them: Gene conversion of the hemoglobin locus: Several CRISPR/Cas9 construct variants were evaluated in vitro to target the

From ‘Standing at Ease‘, The Spectator, 15 May 1915: It is a contradiction in terms, but we think it is true to experience, to say that certain people in distress never stand at ease but when they are working hard. They are as a rule people of very strong will. “Attention!” they shout at their own souls, determined that nothing shall come between them and their task. With an effort which takes all their strength, they concentrate upon their work. “Stand at ease,” murmurs the still voice which cannot be gainsaid, and suddenly their work is invested with an intense and unnatural interest, Breathless, delighted, and refreshed, they follow its intricacies,

The Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was today sentenced to death by lethal injection. The jury reached the decision in the city where the killer, 19 at the time, blew up the marathon, killing three and injuring 260. I feel no sympathy for him, but nor do I support the death penalty and I’m constantly amazed by the hash the US authorities make of a method of execution that sounds simple. Here is a list of 46 botched executions since 1982. This one from last year almost defies belief in its amateurishness: April 29, 2014. Oklahoma. Clayton D Lockett. Lethal Injection. Despite prolonged litigation and numerous warnings from defence attorneys about the dangers

During the World Championship qualifier of 1959, grandmaster Pal Benko wore dark glasses to counter the hypnotic gaze of his dangerous opponent, world champion-to-be Mikhail Tal. This precaution did him no good (see this week’s puzzle).   This is not the only instance when hypnosis has been suspected in chess. In the 1978 world championship, Viktor Korchnoi accused Anatoly Karpov’s assistant, Dr Vladimir Zukhar, of disrupting his thought processes by attacking him telepathically.   Korchnoi has also said he thinks Magnus Carlsen, the reigning world champion, mesmerises his opponents into making blunders. It’s true that in the recent Gashimov Memorial tournament, several of Carlsen’s opponents seemed compelled to self-destruct, helplessly