The NHS And Amazon Are Working On A Diagnosis Skill For Alexa

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has today announced that the NHS is currently working with Amazon on an Alexa skill that’ll allow you to get health advice from the voice-controlled assistant. In a speech made at his local hospital The West Suffolk, the Health Secretary revealed that the government would be investing £487 million in healthcare technology as part of a long term […]

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The US Will Allow 3D-Printed Gun Blueprints Next Month

Starting next month, US citizens will be legally allowed to find the blueprints for a gun online, download them onto a 3D-printer and then create that firearm from scratch. These often plastic-based weapons are not registered which can make them virtually untraceable, often resulting in them being called ‘ghost guns’. Unsurprisingly, the idea of lawfully […]

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Jupiter Is So Massive It Had 12 Extra Moons We Didn’t Know Existed

Jupiter is absolutely vast. It’s so big in fact that we’ve only just scratched the surface of what we know about this gas giant. As a case in point, astronomers have just discovered 12 brand-new moons orbiting the planet that previously we had no idea existed. What’s perhaps even more surprising is that it comes 400-years […]

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SpaceX Mars: 5 Things We’ve Learnt From Elon Musk’s Presentation

Elon Musk is going to Mars. It’s not so much an opinion as what now appears to be a statement of fact. The entrepreneur was speaking at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) and has now shared an update on his vision for Mars and how SpaceXplans to go there. SPACEX Whereas last year’s presentation gave us a small taste […]

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Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight – here’s how to see it

Make sure Star Wars isn’t the only celestial event you see tonight. The bright Geminid meteor shower reaches its peak in the early hours of Thursday morning  The Geminid meteor shower is a reliable source of dozens of bright meteors. Photograph: Asim Patel/Royal Observatory The latest chapter of events in a galaxy far, far away […]

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Spending a Moment with Émilie Du Châtelet

This morning, Émilie Du Châtelet stopped me in my tracks. I’ve been reading Inventing the Mathematician by Sara N. Hottinger. The book, which I’m sure I’ll write more about after reading and inwardly digesting it, is about race, gender, and mathematics. Today, I was reading a chapter about how portraiture influences our conception of mathematics and mathematicians. […]

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This Thanksgiving Pass the Stuffing—and Don’t Pass on the Discussion of Social Issues

An oft-repeated adage to never discuss sex, religion or politics at the dinner table is probably never truer than on Thanksgiving. However, in an America where polling reveals we are increasingly divided over political issues, social science suggests the dinner table may be the ideal place to start. Decades of research reveal we are more open to […]

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Pixel Buds are the coolest thing to come from Google’s event

Google’s event yesterday had an announcement for just about everyone, whether you’re a smartphone enthusiast or maybe just looking for an inexpensive (or really expensive) smart speaker. But after the announcements of everything we were expecting to see, Google had a few last minute accessory announcements that, for me, ended up making the event a pleasant surprise. Over the past decade, there […]

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