The evolution of the human brain has always been shrouded in mystery. This is because the organ tripled in size over the course of nearly seven million years, a pace of evolution that is unheard of in the natural world. Most of this growth occurred in the past two million years, during which time the…
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I have long been fascinated by the artistic drive to create imaginary languages. Countless numbers of them exist. And some of them have made their way into public consciousness since they have been integrated into the fictional worlds and universes portrayed in popular books and television shows. These fictional languages include Elvish in the works…
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The human mission to Mars is still some time away. A report from the Science & Technology Policy Institute concluded that the earliest NASA would be able to send astronauts to Mars would be the late 2030s, although Elon Musk has remarked that SpaceX’s first Starship journey to Mars could go ahead in the next…
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When we think about the value of the space travel industry, we have to think beyond space missions. One of the most important and burgeoning activities of the space travel industry – that is often underappreciated – is the development of green technologies that could revolutionise many industries on Earth, including energy, food, and materials. When…
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The opioid crisis (or opioid epidemic) is still a major public health issue in the US; despite news headlines being dominated by the coronavirus pandemic and lack of coverage of the opioid crisis, the number of opioid overdoses has been increasing. A recent paper in The Lancet reports that in 2019, drug overdose deaths reached…
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