A Harvard academic says the app he designed can prevent rare, hereditary diseases – and sinister interpretations are ‘ridiculous’A Harvard academic who designed a dating app based on gene-matching has said it was “ridiculous” to compare it to eugenics.George Church’s dating app proposes to match users based on their DNA in an attempt to eliminate genetic diseases. In a 60 Minutes...
The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set the following two puzzles about number sandwiches.1) A number sandwich is a line of digits such that there is one digit sandwiched between the 1s, two digits sandwiched between the 2’s, three digits sandwiched between the 3’s, and so on. For example, 312132 is a number sandwich with the digits 1,2 and 3 Continue...
Mother’s fundraising campaign backed by David Attenborough and Prof Alice RobertsEvie Swire was nine years old when she first heard the story of the woman who had lived near her home in Dorset and, in her own way, changed the world.Mary Anning, Evie discovered, had been born into a humble family in Lyme Regis in 1799, and had grown up hunting for fossils in the area’s cliffs to supplement...
These tiny pests adapt so successfully to changing conditions that they have become humankind’s deadliest predator. We might soon be able to eradicate them – but should we? By Timothy Winegard• Read the text version here Continue...
A multi-layered brain snackHere are two puzzles I ordered on room service.1) A number sandwich is a line of digits such that there is one digit sandwiched between the 1s, two digits sandwiched between the 2’s, three digits sandwiched between the 3’s, and so on. For example, 312132 is a number sandwich with the digits 1,2 and 3 Continue...
Unsavoury flavour may explain why certain species do not flee from predators, scientist saysIt might seem like they are being lazy but some moths do not bother to flee from predators because they make themselves taste disgusting.That is the case for a certain species of tiger moth, which researchers have found displays a nonchalant approach when faced with potential predators, on account of its...
Discovery of remains in all-male monastic community in northern Greece poses questionsLaura Wynn-Antikas specialises in bringing bones to life. Decades spent studying skeletal remains across Greece, in subterranean vaults, tombs, chapels and archaeological sites, have yielded a host of unexpected discoveries. “You never know what you are going to find,” the American-born anthropologist said....