Articles Archives

Physical Sciences

Electrode modification techniques for organic electronics

Traditionally, wires and circuitry have been made from conductive metals and inorganic semiconductors such as silicon that allow the controlled flow of charge between one component and another. However, now it is possible to make such circuits on truly miniature scales using organic molecules, i.e., materials mostly made up of carbon. Professor Dr Gregor Witte, Dr Alrun Hauke, Felix Widdascheck […]

Health & Medicine

Who makes the decisions? Patient “compliance” in modern medicine

Traditionally, the term “patient compliance” was used to define how closely a patient followed their doctor’s advice. Now, with the ever-expanding information and resources available to patients, the idea of “compliance” is in need of an update. Professor Karen Lutfey Spencer, of the University of Colorado Denver, USA, looked at the experiences of patients receiving end-of-life care to gain an […]

Arts & Humanities

Ethical political economy lessons from the Malay world through the Hikayat Abdullah 1849

Alan Chong of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, examines the social and economic viewpoints of indigenous people about the positive and negative impacts of the colonial experience and good governance on the maritime silk route. He uses the quasi-autobiographical book Hikayat Abdullah as a lens to examine an outsider’s view of the colonial experience in Southeast Asia and the effects of […]

Biology

A butterfly’s point of view: Contest or sex recognition?

For many years it was thought that when butterflies chase other males, this is a form of contest behaviour over territory. However, Dr Tsuyoshi Takeuchi from Osaka Prefecture University and his team sought to interrogate the literature to see if a more simple and more likely option could be provided. Their ‘Erroneous Courtship Model’ states that the male butterflies are […]

Physical Sciences

The origin of life: The conditions that sparked life on Earth

The origin of life on Earth has been a long-debated issue. There have been many theories as to how life evolved, but Professors Shigenori Maruyama (ELSI, Tokyo Institute of Technology), Ken Kurokawa (National Institute of Genetics), and Dr Toshikazu Ebisuzaki (RIKEN) have found a way to narrow the field to a single likely theory. By identifying a list of nine […]

Behavioural Sciences

Moral and ethical realism and unbounded organization

Howard Richards, in his recently published article in the Journal of Critical Realism Moral (and Ethical) Realism, offers practical ethics for our times, embedded in findings of the natural sciences. A companion volume written with Dr Gavin Andersson, Unbounded Organizing in Community is a step-by-step guide to realist practice. In other works he develops the fateful consequences of two ‘Staggering Facts.’ […]

Health & Medicine

Curiosity, cell death and caspases: One researcher’s journey to big discoveries

All comic book superheroes have an intriguing ‘origins story’; and in the case of science superman Professor Vishva Dixit he has one too. Beginning in Kenya and ending in California, this is the story of a researcher who asked big questions of himself and the world, and went on to pioneer a field of research into cell death, caspases and apoptosis. […]

Health & Medicine

The researchers investigating a new type of antimalarial

The World Health Organization estimates that almost all deaths due to malaria are children living in Africa. Prevention measures against malaria are causing a steady decline in deaths, but common antimalarial therapies like artemisinin-based combination therapies are at risk of becoming ineffective due to drug resistance developing in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite responsible for transmitting the disease. Eugene Megnassan at […]

Engineering & Technology

Crisis management: Using Artificial Intelligence to help save lives

Climate change, and humanitarian issues such as the movement of refugees can create challenges for crisis management and emergency response, particularly in developing countries. Dr Mayank Kejriwal, based at the University of Southern California is passionate about applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to social problems. He is working with colleagues to develop tools that extract critical data sent via social media […]

Health & Medicine

The battle against cancer stem cells in glioblastomas

Glioblastomas are the most common and one of the most aggressive forms of brain tumour. The severity of the cancer within glioblastomas, along with the potential for spreading, are driven by a population of cells known as cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are the beating heart of a cancer. Dr Tapinos and his research team at Brown University, Rhode […]