Why is there spam? The simple answer is that "there is a sucker born every minute" and email is cheap enough to reach millions of potential suckers who might want to buy Viagra, sure-fire investments and fake Rolexes. A new study …

Suppose that the people around repeatedly smile or shake their heads. Although you may not notice it, it is very likely that soon you too will begin to smile or shake your heard. And it is likely that this will affect how you feel and what …

The health secretary announced today that patients in the UK who choose to buy medicines not funded by the national health service, will no longer be excluded from receiving public health care. This announcement follows controversy about ex…

The idea of reproductive cloning can easily be perceived as offensive, as a practice that constitutes the dark side of cloning and should be prohibited under all circumstances, by contrast with therapeutic cloning, the benefits of which are…

When election of public officials through public voting was instituted in the US,the framers of the constitution had no inkling about how large the voting public would one day become. Beside logistical problems that accidentally enfranchise…

Scientists from the Medical College of Georgia in the US recently claimed to be able selectively to wipe out traumatic memories (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/7685541.stm). These scientists experimented with mice and …

‘Is there a place for sacrifice in the modern world?’ a colleague asked during a conference in Oxford this weekend. To an extent the answer appears to depend on what we mean by sacrifice. The traditional religious version is arguably in dem…

Since the 1980s, the popularity of suicide attacks – primarily bombing – has grown rapidly. There are now hundreds every year. As I write, the BBC is reporting a suicide bombing which appears to have killed eight people in Pakistan: http://…

Debbie Purdy is a British woman suffering from multiple sclerosis. Worried about her degenerating condition, she has planned to end her life at the Swiss clinic, Dignitas, which practices euthanasia for people with crippling medical conditi…

A BBC report today suggests that “many” UK couples are going overseas to choose the sex of their children. What seems most odd about this is that in some cases they go to places where sex selection is illegal. What is interesting here is th…