This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
Latest editorial
Secrets in science
Breakthroughs in machine learning could be used to design new deadly chemicals - how should we respond when scientific information is kept secret in the name of global security, ask ROX MIDDLETON, JOEL HELLEWELL and LIAM SHAW
The third structure of the protein called Pikachurin predicted by the program AlphaFold, July 1 2021
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
The FBU is demanding 52 weeks of full pay for women firefighters, highlighting the unique health risks they face — and the continuing need to recruit and retain more women if policies like this are still not in place, writes SEONA HART
Israel continues to operate with impunity in what seems to be a brutal and protracted experiment, while much of the world looks on, says RAMZY BAROUD
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY
With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
A recent Immigration Summit heard from Lord Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. JAYDEE SEAFORTH reports on his message that we need to increase public empathy with desperate people seeking asylum
EARLY in Oppenheimer, the protagonist, who led the US atomic bomb development programme during WWII, attempts half-heartedly to poison one of his supervisors by injecting an apple with poisonous chemicals.
As a science student in an experimental lab, he has easy access to these chemicals. As the film explores, these poisonous materials are not the most deadly things that Oppenheimer works with in his life. The Manhattan Project that Oppenheimer and many thousands of others worked on in strict secrecy culminated in the first atomic weapons: two bombs that killed at least 130,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The rationale behind the secrecy was obvious. They were designing the deadliest bomb anyone had ever seen, and trying to do so before the Nazis. Since then, there have been no further uses of atomic bombs in war, although how to build an atomic weapon is no longer secret.
More from this author
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Science has always been mixed up with money and power, but as a decorative facade for megayachts, it risks leaving reality behind altogether, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
A small Japanese trial has reported some positive results for stem cell therapy to treat spinal-cord injuries
Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
