Coma patients might feel pleasure and pain like the rest of us Emerging evidence suggests the unconscious can experience many of the things that conscious people do. What does this mean for medical ethics and even how we perceive ourselves as humans?
Genome editing: Are we opening a back door to eugenics? We need to talk about the ethical aspects of CRISPR to control where we go from here.
Conserving rare bees has ethical merit but little economic value Most wild bee species do not pollinate crops and offer little economic return; scientists suggest other reasons to conserve them
What is a dignified life? The limits for when life is worth living are constantly changing. How long should we actually continue to treat a dementia patient who has lost the ability to speak and remember?
Uncertainty worse than torture in developing country prisons Prisoners everywhere can become depressed, aggressive or anxious because they feel incapacitated. The feeling of powerlessness can be the hardest one to deal with – even for inmates who are tortured and sit in crowded cells, new research shows.
Bohr inspires debate on drones and space weapons International scientists and decision-makers will gather in Copenhagen next month to discuss how dangerous technologies are to be shared in an ‘open world’.
Create a cheap baby in India New technology is opening up for limitless opportunities to create and have children – across bodies and borders. Consequences include children becoming stateless citizens, and it will be more difficult to identify who the father and mother really are.
A cup of coffee with biodiversity and clean drinking water, please OPINION: Sales of clean water, CO2 credits and the protection of biodiversity can benefit the environment and provide an extra income for farmers who grow coffee under the shade of trees.
Denmark cannot apologise for slave trade As the centennial for Denmark’s sale of the former Danish West Indies approaches, a grass root movement is putting pressure on Denmark to apologise for the slave trade that took place there. However, if Denmark wants to sustain a good relationship with the US, apologising is not an option, says a Danish researcher.
Myths about the prostitute lifestyle Public debate portrays prostitutes as either victims of human trafficking or strong, independent women who have made a personal choice. However, research reveals an altogether different reality.
How to get a top executive talking Sociologists used to focus their research mainly on people in need. But now they’re increasingly directing their studies at the elite, and that presents them with new interviewing challenges.
Double standards for the internet hurt users Western politicians praise the internet as a tool in the fight against authoritarian regimes – so why do they limit access to the web by registering users and censoring content?