Twitter and the Rebirth of the Aphorism

The aphoristic style of writing – which involves terse observations, opinions, and statements of wisdom – has existed for millennia. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates coined the term in his aptly named work Aphorisms; the word is derived from ancient Greek and denotes ‘delimitation’, ‘definition’, and ‘distinction’. An aphorism refers to any pithy statement that…

View Post

Tackling Fake News With Media Literacy: A Lesson From Ukraine

In an effort to challenge fake news, propaganda, disinformation, and hate speech in the media, schools in Ukraine have been teaching students media literacy skills. This programme was initiated following the war in eastern Ukraine, which saw government forces in conflict with Russian-backed separatists. The war led to a rise in propaganda and disinformation in…

View Post

The Fundamentals of Ethical SEO

If you’re trying to write content with search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind, then you should be aware that SEO practices fall under two broad categories: ethical SEO and unethical SEO, also known as white hat SEO and black hat SEO (the terms ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat’ come from Western movies, with different coloured…

View Post

Colonising Mars: A Colossal Feat of Human Ingenuity

Colonising Mars is no easy task. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has estimated that the current cost of sending someone to Mars is “around $10bn per person”. And there are all sorts of other logistical hurdles involved. But, if we want to expand into the Solar System, we’ll need to find out how to…

View Post

The Potential of Space Technologies to Enable a Sustainable Future

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…

View Post