Blurs

Thousands of metres beneath the ocean surface lies an extraordinary world of ancient geological formations, unusual organisms and ecosystems that scientists are only beginning to understand.  Now, companies and governments are preparing to extract valuable minerals from the seabed. The potential rewards are enormous. So are the risks. Could humanity be about to destroy one of Earth's last great wildernesses in pursuit of the materials needed to power its technological future? An industrial revolution beneath the waves Imagine an industrial mining operation taking place more than four kilometres beneath the ocean surface. There is no sunlight. Temperatures are close to freezing. The pressure is hundreds of times greater than at sea level. Yet, scattered across the vast darkness of the seabed, lie millions of mineral-rich rocks containing metals increasingly important to modern civilisation. These are polymetallic nodules. They can contain manganese, nickel, copper and cobalt, among ...

Artificial intelligence is transforming the world, but behind the promises of technological progress lies a rapidly expanding demand for land, electricity and water.  Across Britain, communities are beginning to question whether the price of the AI revolution is being paid by the wrong people. A technological revolution with a physical footprint Artificial intelligence increasingly appears to exist everywhere and nowhere. It writes articles, generates images, analyses medical information, assists scientific research and influences decisions across business, government and everyday life.  Much of this activity takes place behind screens, creating the impression that the digital revolution has relatively little physical presence. But AI has a substantial physical footprint. Behind every sophisticated AI model sits an enormous network of computer processors, storage equipment, cooling systems, electricity infrastructure and buildings.  These facilities are known as data cent...

From the birth of television to the foundations of quantum physics, 1926 was a year that helped shape the modern world.  But a century ago, scientific confidence often exceeded scientific understanding. What will future generations think of the science we believe in today? A Century Between Two Worlds Imagine travelling back to 1926 and telling a scientist that, within a century, humans would walk on the Moon, transplant organs, edit DNA, communicate instantly across the planet and carry devices with more computing power than entire rooms of machinery. They might believe some of it. Much of it would sound like science fiction. Now imagine travelling in the opposite direction. A scientist from 2126 arrives today and examines our hospitals, laboratories, computers and scientific textbooks.  What would astonish them? What would they admire? And which of our most confidently held beliefs would make them smile in disbelief? The year 1926 offers an unusually revealing starting point...