Your new care robot has a dilemma. You’re worried about the side effects your medication is having, and decide you can’t take the pills anymore. The robot knows that according to the drug instructions this is going to harm your health. It could a) respect your wishes and await developments; b) insist you take them and pressurise you by emphasising the dangers; c) find a way to get the medication into you without your knowledge, in food or drink, or...

It takes just EIGHT minutes for house-hunters to know whether a new property is for them, according to a study. After less than ten minutes inside a property, buyers know whether they should be getting out their chequebooks or turning around in the car. Six in ten adults will make their decision not to buy before even stepping through the front door – after just four and a half minutes of standing outside. In contrast, 15 per cent of homeowners...

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria began with farmers pumping livestock with penicillin six decades ago, according to new research. Low doses given to animals to boost their growth from the 1950s in the US and Europe fuelled the evolution and spread of the superbugs, say scientists. Bacteria that can pass on genes resistant to ampicillin - one of the most commonly used antibiotics today - emerged years before human use, the study showed. The discovery comes weeks after the World Health Organisation called...

Those who aren’t particularly au fait with the work of Cecil Beaton, the Oscar-winning set and costume designer behind My Fair Lady and Gigi, are likely to find plenty of little nuggets to mine from this attentive if airy documentary from Lisa Immordino Vreeland. It opens with an exert from a TV interview that Beaton recorded in later life – born in 1904, he died in 1980. During the interview he’s asked how he would describe himself, to which he...

As malignant intolerance and nationalism spreads through Europe and America, there is a powerful urgency in Annalisa Piras’ concise 60 minute documentary, Europe at Sea, that should make it mandatory viewing. Although it is a political document addressing the European Union’s approach to global and European issues, its message is uniquely human; “No country in the world of today is a big one.” The documentary centres on Federica Mogherini, who at 43 is the youngest person to head the Foreign...

Samantha Baines: the woman of many talents. Tell us a little about that you do. Haha, thank you. Well, I like to keep myself busy and keep challenging myself so I work in a few different areas, people are constantly mentioning my fingers to do with pies! I am a stand up comedian (award winning don't ya know) and I talk about science in my comedy as I find it utterly fascinating. I like to work facts into my jokes...

My name is Sepi Maulana Ardiansyah, but my friends call me “Davi”. I am born and raised in Indonesia but this week, with World AIDS Day on Friday, I had the chance to come to London. I am here to tell the UK Government my story and why more people like me need the UK’s continued support. When I was 17, in my last year of high school and about to take my final exams, one of my teacher’s sexually...

Sky News claimed Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, was undermined by his officials, during a recent trip to Ireland. Johnson met with Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney on 17 November, but it as been claimed his own officials told Dublin to “ignore the public utterances” of Johnson. Sky News reported that Foreign Office staff informed Ireland’s Government “not to listen to whatever he has to say,” However, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs “absolutely refutes” the story. Brexit has raised the...

Hundreds of students protested today (Thurs) calling for Britain's highest paid vice-chancellor to stand down immediately. Angry staff and students at Bath University waved placards and chanted demanding Dame Glynis Breakwell quit now. Breakwell announced earlier this week she was standing down from the 450K-a-year job - but only after another year in the role and a further six month paid sabbatical. But protestors say she should go immediately and today (Mon) held a demo in Bath to call for...