• To clone or not to clone?

    Inspired by a discussion with Santi after class, I thought it would be interesting to explore the case of human cloning. in 1969. J.B.S. Haldane first introduced the idea of human cloning, but it wasn’t until 1997 that Ian Wilmut in Edinburgh cloned the first adult mammal, a sheep called Dolly, by transferring the nucleus…

  • Cassandra or Chicken Little? Will the AI Bubble Burst?

    Last week, the managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, wrote a blog post in which she described how “expectations may run ahead of productivity gains” and how, in “a severe scenario, we could see a market correction that cascades through the highly leveraged and circular AI ecosystem” as well as drawing attention to the…

  • Silicon Species?

    Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, recently wrote an essay warning that uncontrolled, autonomous AI could lead to a new ‘silicon species’ that could begin to rival humanity for resources. On BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme Suleyman argued that tech companies risk creating autonomous AI systems capable of setting their own objectives, earning money,…

  • Science Fiction No More? Space-Based Weapons Meet Space-Based Data Centres

    The World Economic Forum kicked off 2026 by speculating about the potential for data centres in space. SpaceX highlights how the build-out of orbital data centres justifies the need for millions of satellites as part of a massive new initiative it now calls Starmind. McKinsey (which believes we will be spending $7trillion on data centres…

  • How to fund research?

    Back during the blog on National Champions, I described how the UK government’s industrial strategy had identified eight priorities (the so-called IS-8) but that there was “no real impetus (or resources!) for taking substantive action”. Clearly, I spoke too soon! This past week, to coincide with the recent budget, the Science and Technology Secretary Liz…

  • Should children be banned from social media?

    Earlier this week, Meta announced it would block Instagram and Facebook for users under 16 in Australia in advance of the 10 December deadline set by the federal legislation designed to reduce children’s exposure to social media. Although this will be a world first, many countries and subnational jurisdictions have begun to actively explore the…