Exorcism – how does it work and why is it on the rise?

By Helen Hall

Exorcism is again in the news, as the Vatican announces a new training course will be held to meet increased demand for deliverance ministry. So what does this actually mean, and should it be a cause for reassurance or...

Would America vote for Oprah for president?

By Chryl N. Laird

America has had a black president. Is the country ready for a black president who is also a woman? Speculation about the candidacy of Oprah Winfrey makes clear that some voters think so. Granted, Winfrey says she...

Facebook has become a vital part of our democracy

By Jakob Ohme

In the wake of the scandal over the misuse of user data by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook has been branded a threat to democracy. But would democracy actually function better without the social networks upon which weve come...

Lawyers keep secrets locked up – so they get asked to do the dirty work

By Elizabeth C. Tippett

Lawyers seem to at the center of lot of scandals lately. President Donald Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, whose office and hotel were raided by the FBI, is only the latest example. Harvey Weinsteins law firm...

Rebuilding trust in the media from the bottom up

By Michael Gordon

America is living in a Facebook moment, where privacy is not private; a Sinclair moment, where local is not local; and a presidential moment, where truth is not true. It seems clear that someone needs to rebuild trust...

Would regulation cement Facebook's market power? It's unlikely

By Catherine de Fontenay

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced a four-hour grilling from the US Senate Commerce and Judiciary panels yesterday in response to a number of revelations that Russian operatives had targeted Facebook users to influence...

To serve a free society, social media must evolve beyond data mining

By Barbara Romzek Et Al

As Congress and the public wrestle with the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, many people are now realizing the risks data collection poses to civic institutions, public discourse and individual privacy. The U.K.-based...

Location and voice technology are the future of retail

By Louise Grimmer Et Al

Retailers, struggling to connect with their customers, have been trialling new technologies to blend in-store and digital experiences. Interactive kiosks, mobile-friendly websites and transactional apps have become the...

Central-bank digital currencies: toward a cashless society?

By Sergio Focardi

While private digital currencies such as the bitcoin are in the news daily, countries including China and Sweden are studying the creation a new form of money a central-bank digital currency (CBDC). The objective is to...

A rubbish idea: how blockchains could tackle the world's waste problem

By Phillip Taylor Et Al

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin may fill news headlines, but attention has been shifting to the technology that underpins them: blockchains. Blockchains are virtual ledgers on which data can be permanently stored. They are a...

Why nuclear fusion is gaining steam – again

By Scott L Montgomery

Back when I studied geology in grad school, the long-term future of energy had a single name: nuclear fusion. It was the 1970s. The physicists I studied with predicted that tapping this clean new source of electric power...

CFO survey: firms slow to adopt fintech, executive optimism at all-time high

By Philippe Dupuy Et Al

The International Association of Financial Executives Institutes (IAFEI) and a group of partners including Duke University and Grenoble EM survey CFOs across the world. For the first quarter 2018, the survey ran from...

I lived through Saddam Hussein's fall – and the horror that came next

By Balsam Mustafa

I was a senior university student in Baghdad, Iraq. It was March 2003, and over the past few months, my classmates had whispered to each other about the possibility of a US-led invasion and the likelihood that 35 years of...

Defamation in the digital age has morphed into litigation between private individuals

By Derek Wilding

New South Wales District Court judge Judith Gibson recently identified a worrying social trend she sees in running the courts defamation list ordinary people suing over social media posts. In turn, NSW Attorney-General...

What Xi Jinping's grab for power means for Canada

By Charles Burton

Since the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank tweeted last week that Canada is now officially a full member, it hasnt exactly made headlines. Yet this is ostensibly a prelude for trade talks with China in an...

Why the business model of social media giants like Facebook is incompatible with human rights

By Sarah Joseph

Facebook has had a bad few weeks. The social media giant had to apologise for failing to protect the personal data of millions of users from being accessed by data mining company Cambridge Analytica. Outrage is brewing...

Will Amazon be your next bank and health insurance?

By Marcos Lima

One of Mr. Rockefellers most impressive characteristics is patience. This 1902 assertion by pioneering journalist Ida Tarbell described John D. Rockefeller, one of the wealthiest men in the world in the early 20th...

Is the growing Russia crisis another Cold War conflict? Nyet

By Regina Smyth

A crisis erupted this week as Russian diplomats were ejected from European countries and the U.S., and Western diplomats were ejected by Russia. The punitive measures were sparked by outrage in the West over alleged...

Why not nationalize Facebook?

By Blayne Haggart

The Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal is fast emerging as a watershed for our increasingly digitized society. For the first time, how to regulate personal data has become a mainstream public issue, so its important that...

Why are more people doing gig work? They like it

By Cheryl Carleton

Thanks to companies like Lyft, TaskRabbit and Instacart, its never been easier for Americans who can afford it to zip from place to place, get groceries delivered or let someone else walk their dog. Likewise, the number of...

'Big Tech' isn't one big monopoly – it's 5 companies all in different businesses

By Amanda Lotz

Public concern about Facebooks power in society and in politics has skyrocketed in the wake of revelations that users data was analyzed by a U.K.-based marketing firm and used to construct highly targeted political...

Low-carbon computing is needed to avoid a technological collapse

By Oscar Céspedes

Human society has come to rely on superior gadgets being produced every year. Each year, new phones or laptops are faster, sleeker and have even more capabilities. However, electronics are rarely recycled, and the carbon...

Big brands ripping off street art is not cool: why illegal graffiti should be protected by copyright

By Enrico Bonadio

When street artist Jason Revok Williams sprayed his trademark chevrons on a handball court in Brooklyn, he probably didnt imagine he would end up taking a high-street fashion giant to court for breach of copyright. But...

Russians are starved of alternative viewpoints by their media's united anti-Western front

By Natasha Rulyova

When Russia ignored a British government ultimatum to explain whether it was involved in the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, Theresa May quickly announced a set of...

Free divers have long defied science – and we still don't really understand how they go so deep

By Kevin Fong

Free divers swim to extreme depths underwater (the current record is 214m) without any breathing apparatus. Champions can hold their breath for extraordinary amounts of time the record for women is nine minutes, and men...

Some easy fixes for Russia's flagging economy – if only politics didn't get in the way

By Sergey V. Popov

With the outcome of the Russian election almost certainly a return to power for Vladimir Putin, its perhaps more interesting to consider how he could improve the countrys flagging economy. This is more of a...

Is it possible to live off-grid?

By Sharon George

As interest grows in self-sufficient, sustainable communities, and fears over Europes reliance on gas imports increase, more and more people are considering moving off-grid. Pioneering companies are already building...

We need to become global citizens to rebuild trust in our globalised world

By Laura D'Olimpio

This is the third article in a series in which philosophers discuss the greatest moral challenge of our time, and how we should address it. Read the first article here and the second here. The erosion of trust in a...

Why virtual reality cannot match the real thing

By Janna Thompson

Suppose you were offered the opportunity to hook yourself up to a machine that would give you all the experiences you desire. Using this technology you could have the sensations of climbing Mt Everest, enjoying great sex...

Why do gun-makers get special economic protection?

By Allen Rostron

The gun industry is one of very few industries to have congressionally backed immunity from liabilty. As a result, its been largely shielded from responsibility for the deaths and injuries its products cause, with few...

Here are five signs that universities are turning into corporations

By Sioux McKenna

Universities in many parts of the world are buckling under multiple financial, societal and political demands. This has led to increasingly loud calls for what are called enhanced efficiencies a term drawn from the...

South Africa's economy is badly skewed to the big guys: how it can be changed

By Simon Roberts

The South African economy looks uncomfortably the same to the one inherited when the country transitioned from apartheid to democracy in 1994. Which is why its time for a robust economic policy agenda to make it more open,...

#MeToo on the 1930s silver screen

By Marsha Gordon

Times 2017 Person of the Year was The Silence Breakers, a growing contingent of women who have been speaking out about sexual harassment by men in positions of power. But the sexual exploitation of women is hardly...

London congestion charge: why it's time to reconsider one of the city's great successes

By Nicole Badstuber

It has been 15 years since Londons congestion charge was introduced by the citys first mayor, Ken Livingstone. Livingstone hoped the charge would reduce congestion, radically improve bus services, make journey times more...

When the Internet goes down

By Hervé Debar

A third of the Internet is under attack. Millions of network addresses were subjected to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks over two-year period, reports Warren Froelich on the UC San Diego News Center website. A...

Before hitting the road, self-driving cars should have to pass a driving test

By Srikanth Saripalli

What should a self-driving car do when a nearby vehicle is swerving unpredictably back and forth on the road, as if its driver were drunk? What about encountering a vehicle driving the wrong way? Before autonomous cars are...

Why energy-sapping bitcoin mining is here to stay

By Michel Rauchs

The enormous use of energy needed to mine bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is proving to be very contentious, but alternative methods pose far too much of a security risk. The recent warning that electricity use at...

Debate: On secularism in the 21st century

By Jeremy Ghez

In January 2018 the French commemorated the Charlie Hebdo attacks that occurred three years earlier. The expression of American solidarity then toward the victims in France was quick and unwavering just as it was in the...

Why economists are calling for the RPI inflation measure to be scrapped

By Robert O'Neill

The RPI measure of inflation is without merit. The retail price index has been an official measure of inflation for close to 50 years in the UK, but it requires a deliberate and carefully timed withdrawal. Thats according...

Why we developed a microscope for your phone – and published the design

By Antony Orth

My colleagues and I have developed a 3D printable clip-on that can turn your smartphone into a fully functional microscope. Weve released the design online so that anyone can print it and modify it to suit their...

Parents need to start talking to their tweens about the risks of porn

By Gail Dines

Editors note: This article includes references to graphic sexual content that may be inappropriate for some readers. Today teenagers are viewing far more pornography than their parents realize. And the porn theyre...

Alcohol probably makes it harder to stop sexual violence – so why aren't colleges talking about it?

By Ruschelle Leone Et Al

Several years ago, one of us (Dominic) was consulting with university administration on their sexual violence prevention program. All colleges and universities that receive Title IX funding are federally mandated to...

North Korea's growing criminal cyberthreat

By Dorothy Denning

The countries posing the greatest cyberthreats to the United States are Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Like its counterparts, Kim Jong Uns regime engages in substantial cyber espionage. And like Russia and Iran, it...

GDPR: ten easy steps all organisations should follow

By Maureen Meadows Et Al

Data protection law hasnt undergone a significant update since the EU brought in legislation in 1995 just six years after the birth of the World Wide Web. But GDPR is about to shake things up. Now, 23 years later, the...

Thirty years since the Seoul Olympics, South Korea is still tackling the legacy of overseas adoption

By Jessica Walton

South Korea holding this years Winter Olympics comes 30 years after the country first hosted the Summer Olympics, in the capital Seoul. It has undergone huge social changes since that time, but there is still a long road...

How we can put a stop to the revolving door between homelessness and imprisonment

By Sophie Russell

Homeless people are over-represented in Australias prisons, and previously incarcerated people are over-represented among the homeless. Experiencing homelessness increases the risk of criminal justice system involvement,...

Ramaphosa must fuse fixing broken institutions and economic policy

By Mark Swilling

The state of the nation speech delivered by South Africas new president Cyril Ramaphosa was designed to project an image of hope and change. The new head of state emphasised the fight against corruption, improved...

Life on humanitarian compounds is removed from reality – this can fuel the misconduct of aid workers

By Gemma Houldey

Sexual harassment, exploitation or abuse some of which reportedly occurred at Oxfam in Haiti and has involved staff at other aid agencies elsewhere is never excusable. But the backdrop in which these sorts of acts occur...

Comfortably numb – why some older people turn to cannabis for pain relief

By Tony Rao Et Al

When most people think of cannabis users, they probably think mainly of the younger generations. But its actually the 45 to 64 age group who show the highest proportion of household spending on cannabis. Recent figures...

Millennials' home ownership hopes dashed by a broken housing market

By Chris O'Leary

Speaking to the Conservative Party conference in September 2017, the UK prime minister, Theresa May, gave a stark assessment of the UK housing market which made for depressing listening for many young people: For many the...