Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
“The AI craze is being driven by tech companies, not our needs. These companies are working nonstop to sell us on how much we need AI in our lives. If they succeed, they stand to make a fortune. Of course, they couldn’t care less about the social consequences of their effort. It’s all a quest (…)
, by JAYARATNE Ravindra, SHIBAYAMA Tomoya
Baiturrahim Mosque was one of few structures left standing in the city of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Frans Delian / shutterstock
On Boxing Day 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean near Indonesia set off a tsunami which killed almost 250,000 people. It was the deadliest natural disaster this (…)
, by HONG Yong-hui
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now essential for companies to continue to grow and maintain their competitive advantage in our society. In addition, AI technology is becoming an integral part of our daily lives because of the constant and rapid technological advancements. As a (…)
, by MOROZOV Evgeny
Let’s retire this hackneyed term: while ChatGPT is good at pattern-matching, the human mind does so much more
Elon Musk and Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak have recently signed a letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of AI systems. The goal is to give society time to (…)
, by BAUER Marti, JONES Stephen
Studying the properties of the Higgs boson could throw up some shocking truths about the nature of reality.
Ten years ago, scientists announced the discovery of the Higgs boson, which helps explain why elementary particles (the smallest building blocks of nature) have mass. For particle (…)
, by HOODBHOY Pervez
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru would never have won a popularity contest in Pakistan quite simply because he did his best to oppose the country’s creation. But nowhere is he reviled more than in India’s current ruling circles and among those whose loyalty they command. Pakistani scientist Pervez Hoodbhoy asks why.
The accusations against Nehru are often breathtaking: that he was degenerate and dissolute; born in a brothel and eventually died of syphilis; impregnated a Catholic nun; claimed to be a (...)
, by BENOIT Julien
The Taung child (foreground) was the first of a long series of human ancestors discovered in Africa. Julien Benoit
For nearly a century now the African root of human evolutionary theory has remained strong and unbowed. It is proved by a tremendous fossil record that documents the diversity of (…)
, by THORNETT Alan
Othe impact of our species on the planet. Alan Thornett looks at current debates:
We are at a crossroads in terms of the impact of our species on the planet. The actions of modern human beings, ‘homo sapiens’—i.e. us—are set to determine, during the course of the 21st century, whether or not (…)
, by KOVER Paula
Given its huge success in describing the natural world for the past 150 years, the theory of evolution is remarkably misunderstood. In a recent episode of the Australian series of “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here”, former cricket star Shane Warne questioned the theory – asking “if humans (…)
, by THORNETT Alan
Fossil Capital – the rise of steam power and the roots of global warming, by Andreas Malm. Verso 2016 at 488 pp £19.99 reviewed by Alan Thornett.
This book is a well researched, and well-written account, from a Marxist perspective, of the industrial revolution in Britain, the origins of (…)
, by MEHTA Pankaj
Richard Levins was a profound thinker who devoted his life to an emancipatory vision of science.
Richard Levins, the great radical and scientist, passed away on January 19. Levins was a profound thinker who made foundational contributions to scientific and intellectual fields ranging from (…)
, by THORNETT Alan
Review of The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis edited by Clive Hamilton, Cristophe Bonneuil, and Francois Gemenne published by the Routledge Environmental Humanities Series in 2015.
This book is a very good introduction to a very big subject that has only been on the radar for (…)
, by ANGUS Ian
Experts agree: Changes since 1950 rival those that ended the last ice age. The Holocene is over, and the Anthropocene has begun.
Repeatedly, over hundreds of thousands of years, glaciers expanded south and north from the polar regions, covering much of the Earth with ice sheets several (…)
, by ANGUS Ian
“In our time, understanding and responding to the Anthropocene must be at the top of the socialist agenda.”
The word Anthropocene, unknown twenty years ago, now appears in the titles of three academic journals, dozens of books, and hundreds of academic papers, not to mention innumerable (…)
, by FAYYAZUDDIN Ansar
Darwin’s Ghosts, by Rebecca Stott. Spiegel & Grau/Random House, 2012, 416 pages, $17 paperback.
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REBECCA STOTT’S DARWIN’S Ghosts is structured as a collection of episodes in the history of biology. The episodes, labeled by the names of individuals and an associated (…)
, par IRFAN HABIB S.
THERE WAS a time when the Islamic world was at the forefront of scientific ideas and discoveries. Today, the narrative has been turned around to cast the religion as a hindrance to modernisation and free thought. In his new book Jihad or Ijtihad , historian of science S Irfan Habib, 59, examines (…)
, by GASPAR Phil
Reviewed by Phil Gaspar: The Science and Humanism of Stephen Jay Gould . By: Richard York and Brett Clark. New York, Monthly Review Press, 2011, 223 pp. $16.95.
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It has been almost 10 years since the death of the Harvard paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay (…)
, par SAEED Shahid
Mohammad Abdus Salam (January 29, 1926-November 21, 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work in Electro-Weak Theory. Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg shared the prize for this discovery. Salam is the first Pakistani and the (…)
, by FAYYAZUDDIN Ansar
STEPHEN JAY GOULD died on May 20, 2002 of cancer at the age of 60. He leaves behind a vast scientific and literary legacy imbued indelibly with his unique humanist and socialist commitments.
For the last thirty-five years Gould was a faculty member at Harvard where he taught geology and the (…)
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