TOK: Reason
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‘We have a deal.’ (Now for the hard part)
Is it 13 days to Brexit? Yes, if you believe the Prime Minister. No, if you listen to the pundits. Now, it’s a numbers game and the focus is on a historic sitting of the Commons tomorrow.
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Baby in a bag: artificial womb project launches
Is it a dream come true or a science-fiction nightmare? Scientists in the Netherlands have been given €2.9m to build a prototype artificial womb. They say it could save millions of lives.
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The picture that gave Instagram a meltdown
What is it about Friends? It took one selfie of the show’s main cast to spark such delirium yesterday that Instagram crashed. Yet for many the comedy is sexist, offensive and outdated.
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New robot ‘on the path to self-awareness’
Will robots ever be self-aware? Scientists at Colombia University have built a machine that learns about itself in the same way as a baby. Could it become more intelligent than a human?
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‘Almost three billion will go hungry by 2050’
Can we feed everyone? Tomorrow is World Food Day. We already make enough for 10 billion people, and yet one in nine humans does not have enough food. How did that happen?
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Margaret Atwood joint winner of Booker Prize
Is Margaret Atwood a prophet? She seems to have foretold #MeToo, seen the climate crisis coming and predicted the rise of Trump. Yet she insists she sees only the present, not the future.
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Sci-fi comes true as China breeds giants pigs
Is this how meat-eating ends? In the face of severe shortages caused by infection and trade wars, a desperate regime starts breeding monster pigs to pacify its angry, rebellious masses.
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Kurds cry betrayal as Trump withdraws support
Should Kurdistan be an independent country? Donald Trump’s abrupt cave-in yesterday, pulling support from the USA’s old allies in the fight against ISIS, has left 45 million people at risk.
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Harry risks monarchy with anti-press crusade
Is this a bridge too far? The battle lines have been drawn between #TeamMeghan and Britain’s media. Commentators fear Prince Harry is attacking the very thing that keeps the monarchy alive.
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The disturbing rise of racist robots
Are robots racist? AI computers are showing sexist and racist bias. A growing number of experts fear that we have created AI in our own worst image, and it could have awful consequences.
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Salazar ‘used his athletes like lab animals’
Has the time come to legalise doping? The world of athletics is in turmoil after Alberto Salazar’s shock ban from coaching for four years. Many are now calling for a radical fresh start.
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Humpback whale ‘swallows’ sea lion whole
Is nature competitive or co-operative? A rare image of a sea lion flailing in the jaws of a humpback whale is not what it appears to be — challenging our ideas about survival of the fittest.
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Everything we know about maths could be wrong
Is maths best described as an art or a science? A top academic fears that modern theorems are riddled with errors. Computers could fix them. But if they did, would the result still be maths?
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China salutes 70 years since its red dawn
Should we celebrate or condemn China? Tomorrow, the People’s Republic will mark 70 years of Communist rule with massive fanfare, but its history is marked by death and lasting oppression.
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America’s ‘Caesar’ to face impeachment
Is this the end for Donald Trump? After three swashbuckling years of tearing up the rulebook in the world’s most powerful job, the US President faces his ultimate challenge. Will he lose?