Jurassic Park: The Rise of Resurrection Biology (from chapter two of Films from the Future)
August 29, 2018I was a newly minted Ph.D. when I first saw Jurassic Park. It was June 1993, and my wife and I were beginning to enjoy our new-found freedom, after years of too much study and too little money. I must confess that we weren’t dinosaur geeks. But there was something about ...
In the Beginning … Chapter One of “Films from the Future”
August 23, 2018I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey on a small black and white TV, tucked in a corner of my parents’ living room. It was January the first 1982, and I was sixteen years old…
YouTube channel on the Science of Risk hits a milestone
August 22, 2018It’s been a while coming, but the YouTube channel Risk Bites has just hit 10,000 subscribers. It may not sound a lot when compared to some YouTube mega-channels, but for a low-budget channel that occupies the space between academic expertise and people who just want to know stuff, it’s a ...
Second-guessing consumer views on products using nanotechnology
August 21, 2018This month’s copy of the journal Nature Nanotechnology has a commentary in it by myself and colleague Justin Kidd, where we ask whether manufacturers of nano-enabled water treatment products are in danger of second-guessing consumer views. The commentary draws on research we’re currently involved in on gauging manufacturer perceptions of consumer ...
Excerpts from Films from the Future
August 21, 2018Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting short excerpts from Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies ahead of the book’s publication on November 15 — visit regularly to read the latest, and remember that you can pre-order the book now on Amazon! Schedule: August 23. In ...
Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies
August 20, 2018I’m thrilled that my new book Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies (Mango Publishing) is now available! From the listing: Learn how movies reveal the future of technology Fans of The Science of Interstellar, The Second Machine Age, and Physics of the Future will love the Films from the Future. Science, technology, and society: In Films from ...
Book update: New title, Amazon Listing, Publication Date, Contents, and more …
August 3, 2018After a hectic summer of writing and editing, I’m pleased (if a little frazzled) to report that the book formerly known as “The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future” is on schedule to be published mid-November of this year. Just to whet your appetite, here’s a quick update on where things stand: What’s the ...
The Sounds of the Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future
June 13, 2018I must confess that, over the past year, I’ve taken immersing myself in the movies at the core of The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future rather seriously — perhaps too seriously! Of course, I’ve watched the movies many, many times. But I’ve also been submersed in their soundtracks; often in ...
Nootropics
June 11, 2018Excerpted from a early draft of Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies (out November 2018); inspired by the movie Limitless. In 2004, the academic and medical doctor Anjan Chatterjee wrote a review of what he termed “Cosmetic Neurology”. He was far from the first person to ...
The “Science” of Predicting Bad Behavior
June 5, 2018Excerpted from a early draft of The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future; inspired by the movie Minority Report. In March 2017, the British newspaper The Guardian ran a web-story with the headline “Brain scans can spot criminals, scientists say”. Unlike in Minority Report, the scanning was carried out using a hefty ...
We need to make the PhD system more student-supportive and student-centric
June 3, 2018Not everyone aspires to getting a PhD. But for those who do, pursuing one should be the pinnacle of their educational experience. Yet for many graduate students, studying for their doctoral degree turns into nightmare that continues to haunt them long after they’ve left university. And the reason is surprisingly ...
The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future: Beginnings
May 31, 2018As The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future book comes together over the next few weeks, I thought it would be interesting to post excerpts from the early drafts. These will change during editing — drastically so in some cases I suspect. But they might pique your interest, and give you ...
The BS and the Science of Nanotechnology
May 29, 2018In case you missed it, Elon Musk called BS on the field of nanotechnology last week. The ensuing Twitter spat was admittedly rather small on the grand scale of things. But it did throw up an important question: just what is nanotech, and where does the BS end and the ...
I just signed a book deal – The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future’s happening!
May 25, 2018The big news is that I’ve just signed a book deal with the publisher Mango! The working title for the book is The Moviegoer’s Guide to the Future (Update: the final title is Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies), and it’s going to be a ...
10 potential risks of artificial intelligence we should probably be thinking about now
May 12, 2018To unpack some of the challenges around the risks and benefits Artificial Intelligence, Risk Bites has a 5 minute introduction to ten potential risks of AI we should probably be thinking about now
Humility in science communication
May 9, 2018A few weeks ago, I was asked to give a keynote on Knowledge Mobilization for the annual Graduate College Impact Awards at Arizona State University (the video’s at the end of this post). The talk was to be science communication. But on reflection, I took the opportunity to address something ...
After Tempe fatality, self-driving car developers must engage with public now or risk rejection
March 21, 2018Andrew Maynard, Arizona State University; Jameson Wetmore, Arizona State University, and Thaddeus R. Miller, Arizona State University On Sunday evening, March 18, an Uber SUV hit and killed a pedestrian in the Arizona city of Tempe. In a place where vehicle-related pedestrian fatalities are unfortunately a regular occurrence, this shouldn’t have ...
Eager to dye your hair with ‘nontoxic’ graphene nanoparticles? Not so fast!
March 20, 2018Graphene is something of a celebrity in the world of nanoscale materials. Isolated in 2004 by Nobel Prize winners Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, these ultrathin sheets of carbon atoms are already finding novel uses in areas like electronics, high-efficiency heating systems, water purification technologies and even golf balls. According ...
What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and why should you care?
January 25, 2018We have a new video up on the YouTube Risk Bites channel that asks what the fourth industrial revolution is, and looks at the technological trends underpinning it. If you’ve ever wondered what the fourth industrial revolution is, why it’s so important, what whatever happened to the previous three, check it ...
‘Geostorm’ movie shows dangers of hacking the climate – we need to talk about real-world geoengineering now
October 20, 2017Jane A. Flegal, University of California, Berkeley and Andrew Maynard, Arizona State University Hollywood’s latest disaster flick, “Geostorm,” is premised on the idea that humans have figured out how to control the Earth’s climate. A powerful satellite-based technology allows users to fine-tune the weather, overcoming the ravages of climate change. Everyone, ...