On 7 July, the European Commission registered a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) entitled ‘Introduction of an unconditional basic income (UBI) across the EU’. The organisers of the initiative believe that,“with rapid advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, there is an urgent need to decouple our livelihoods from our ability to sell our labour, as we […]
Why is ice slippery?
In freezing weather, ice causes many a traveller to come unstuck. But as experimental physicist Robin Ras explains, getting to grips with what makes ice so slippery isn’t easy. Whether you’re gliding serenely across an ice rink, or awkwardly down a footpath, the frictionless surface offered by ice can often be surprising. What makes it […]
Machine learning unlocks ice core climate clues
A new technique based on machine learning can help scientists to more efficiently analyse ice cores. This could unlock new clues about our climatic past. Ice cores – long cylinders of ice drilled and extracted from polar ice sheets or alpine glaciers – provide pristine records of past climates. Layers of deposit create a succession […]