Hello.
Welcome to this piece of internet I bought
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This is my 'best of me' page. It's a portfolio, not a blog; a collection of the work that I've done over the years of which I am most proud. This is why, in one or two cases (ahem), some of the pieces are getting a little bit dusty. I keep them here because I still think each of them is important - and that as a whole, they give you a very quick scrapbook-view of what is important to me.
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I find the future fascinating and (in most cases) I am unapologetically hopeful about what science and technology will offer us. This does not make an evangelist: I am a bioethicist by training and believe that technology is only as good as the people in control of it. This is what I like most to investigate: who is promising what and why, and who the winners and losers of the next great scientific and technological upheavals will be.
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It's easy to be sensationalist about the future: holding up a cancer cure one moment and screaming that the nanobots are coming the next. I don't do that. I like days of reading academic papers, in preparation for interviews with people who are the best in their fields. I like talking to people who know more than I do. I like taking everything I know, every paper I've read and every interview I've conducted and turning that into an article that (I hope), everyone will finish feeling informed.
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If you'd like to get in touch, or commission me to write for you, here's my contact page.
Russia Has Turned Ukraine Into a Giant Minefield - An urgent, underreported catastrophe: Russian soldiers have contaminated an area more than twice the size of Austria with antipersonnel mines that will kill Ukrainians indiscriminately for decades.
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Mark Hiznay, Human Rights Watch; Ruth Bottomley, consultant and landmine researcher; Olesia Fesenko, The HALO Trust
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Could We Fall In Love With Robots? - ​What does a human being need for companionship? And can that be replicated by an app, an amourous Alexa or a built-for-purpose robot?
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Dr. Diana Fleischman, Dr. John Danaher, Dr. Kate Devlin
What To Do With Pandemic Flu - A two-month investigation into pandemic disease planning and prevention written within weeks of the first reports of Covid-19.
Professor Derek Smith; Ellen Fragaszy, senior research fellow, University College London Institute of Health Informatics
What Will Tomorrow's Kids Make of Robot Pets? - Exploring how and why children cherish smart toys, and how the distinction between synthetic and natural is closing.
Dr. Fangwu Tung; Mark Palatucci, co-founder and head of cloud AI & machine learning, Anki.
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How to Live When Nobody Dies - Examining the science, ethics (and likelihood) of an ageless society.
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Professor John Harris
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What's Wrong With Eating People? - "Extolling the virtues of cannibalism." - A US blogger who did not read the article but really livened up my Twitter for a week.
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Dr. Bill Schutt, Dr. Koert Van Mensvoort, Dr. John Loike
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A Shortage of Legitimate Donors Is Fuelling the Black Market Organ Trade - In a free market, who's to say what a person does with their 'spare' kidney?
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Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Professor Monir Moniruzzaman
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Brainjacking: are medical implants the next target for hackers? - We protect phones and laptops better than pacemakers and DBS implants. For all our sakes this must change.
Dr. Laurie Pycroft
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Why Some Parents Choose to Have a Deaf Baby - Is deafness a culture, or a disability? And should couples be allowed to choose it for their children?
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Paul Redfern; Anna Tsekouras British Deaf Association
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In the future, there will be a pill for falling in love - What would it mean to choose the people we love? Or have others choose for us?
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Dr. Brian Earp
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Could 3D-printed organs be medicine’s next black market? - A cheaply grown replacement organ is better than no organ at all, right?
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Dr. Bertalan Mesko