Down but not out: diagnosing UKIP's biggest problems

Mar 18, 2017 06:55 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

UKIP seems to have lurched from crisis to crisis since achieving its founding ambition to take the UK out of the European Union. However, UKIP still has noteworthy support. It might be down, but it certainly isnt...

Space Science Series

Astronomers to peer into a black hole for the first time with new Event Horizon Telescope

Mar 18, 2017 06:54 am UTC| Insights & Views Science

Ever since first mentioned by Jon Michell in a letter to the Royal Society in 1783, black holes have captured the imagination of scientists, writers, filmmakers and other artists. Perhaps part of the allure is that these...

Asimov's laws of robotics aren't the moral guidelines they appear to be

Mar 18, 2017 06:52 am UTC| Technology Law Insights & Views

Seventy-five years ago, the celebrated science fiction writer Isaac Asimov published a short story called Runaround. Set on Mercury, it features a sophisticated robot nicknamed Speedy that has been ordered to gather some...

George Osborne at the Evening Standard: the latest through a long-revolving door

Mar 18, 2017 06:36 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

In announcing the former chancellor, George Osborne, as its new editor, the London Evening Standard continues a strong tradition of political elites having easy access to employment within the media elite. They sometimes...

George Osborne, The Evening Standard and the Conservative media establishment

Mar 18, 2017 06:34 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics

The appointment of George Osborne, a Conservative MP and former chancellor of the exchequer, as editor of the Evening Standard was, to put it mildly, a surprise to many. But Osbornes appointment only makes more explicit...

After 75 years, Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics need updating

Mar 17, 2017 15:17 pm UTC| Insights & Views Law Technology

When science fiction author Isaac Asimov devised his Three Laws of Robotics he was thinking about androids. He envisioned a world where these human-like robots would act like servants and would need a set of programming...

A clarion call for a new kind of popular politics

Mar 17, 2017 15:08 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

If the rising sense of alienation from the political process is to be reversed in the long term, it will require more than a quick dose of populist rhetoric or tinkering with the way politics is organised. The British...