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Gifts from The Morning Star
Worth the risk?
A new funding agency for science claims it will be tolerant of failure – but the signs are that it aims only to replicate existing venture capitalism, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
CUTTING EDGE: Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) which can perform laparoscopic surgery on the soft tissue of a pig without human help

LAST month the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) announced the appointment of a new CEO, in line with its intention to launch around the end of this year.

Aria is a new funding agency modelled on venture capital funding for high-risk “moonshot” research that will sit alongside, although independent of the umbrella British research funding agency UK Research and Innovation.

The new CEO, Ilan Gur, has a background in venture capital.  

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UNRECOGNISED POTENTIA:L: Girl students conduct an experiment by throwing cotton balls to demonstrate the instinctive reaction of flinching at The Big Bang Fair 2025, for young scientists and engineers, at the NEC in Birmingham on June 18 2025
Science and Society / 16 July 2025
16 July 2025

What’s behind the stubborn gender gap in Stem disciplines ask ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT in their column Science and Society

The ruins of Guernica after it was bombed by the Nazis on April 26, 1937
Science and Society / 2 July 2025
2 July 2025

While politicians condemned fascist bombing of Spanish civilians in 1937, they ignored identical RAF tactics across the colonies. Today’s aerial warfare continues this pattern of applying different moral standards based on geography and race, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

LETHAL PLANS: Keir Starmer visits a defence contractor in Bedfordshire
Science and Society / 4 June 2025
4 June 2025

The distinction between domestic and military drones is more theoretical than practical, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

UNEASY COHABITATION: Southern Ridges, Singapore, 2015 Pic: Zairon/CC
Science and Society / 21 May 2025
21 May 2025

Nature's self-reconstruction is both intriguing and beneficial and as such merits human protection, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

 

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SCIENCE AND SOCIETY / 22 April 2025
22 April 2025

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

GROUP SUPREMACY: Alois Alzheimer (standing third from right)
Science and Society / 11 February 2025
11 February 2025
Fraud in Alzheimer’s research raises difficult questions about the current state of science, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
BIG BUSINESS AGENDA: Donald Trump
Science and Society / 29 January 2025
29 January 2025
The new US administration’s policy decisions are already having seismic effects worldwide, argue ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
World map of submarine communication cables as of July 2015
Science and Society / 14 August 2024
14 August 2024
The infrastructure of the internet relies on submarine optical fibre cables which can be exploited to investigate the oceans and what lies beneath them, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT