Fractals Are Everywhere

Fractal comes from the Latin word fractus (translated as ‘fractured’) and it refers to any irregular, ‘fractured’ looking shape. The term was coined by Benoit Mandelbrot, the IBM mathematician who first produced computer-generated images of fractals and mathematically interpreted nature in his book The Fractal Geometry of Nature. The most famous computer-generated fractal shape is the Mandelbrot set, related…

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Adopting a Vegan Diet for Humanitarian Reasons

People choose a vegan diet usually for ethical, health or environmental reasons. These are all valid reasons and I expect that most people justify their plant-based diet on the basis of either animal welfare or animal rights. However, not everyone is receptive to the idea of valuing animals because they are sentient or because they…

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The Ethical and Environmental Implications of Lab Grown Meat

So earlier this year Dutch scientists used stem cells to create strips of muscle tissue, which many are claiming is a sign of greater things to come – the mass production of lab-grown hamburgers! An exciting prospect…but for who? Well, potentially, everyone. At the moment it is estimated that with current techniques, the cost of…

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Losing Faith in Faith Schools

According to the British Humanist Association (BHA), there are currently 7000 state-funded faith schools in the UK, mostly Christian, but all are legally allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion. Furthermore, all are exempt from the normal classroom inspections that other schools are subject to. This discrimination is unfair to children or teachers who…

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Simworld: Reality Could Be a Computer Simulation

For anyone who has seen the film The Matrix, they will know that the basic premise of the film is that reality is simulated in our minds by the means of a computer intelligence. The idea that reality is a simulation is not a relatively new idea. The essence of the idea can actually be…

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