Many of the UK's iconic red telephone booths may not be around for much longer. Starting next year, BT will start replacing London telephone booths with WiFi terminals. These sidewalk kiosks will allow people to charge their phones and access high-speed wireless internet for free. Intersection, the company behind the LinkNYC WiFi kiosks, is collaborating with BT and Primesight, a UK outdoor advertising company.
Doctors have found lots of ways to see right through you. Now a team of researchers throughout the United Kingdom will be doing a lot of that—they are kicking off the world's largest imaging study. The scientists, who are affiliated with the UK nonprofit Biobank, intend to capture images of the brains, hearts, bones, and arteries of 100,000 patients, with the help of MRIs, X-rays, and ultrasounds. By combining those images with other types of lifestyle and health data that the researchers have spent the past decade collecting, the researchers hope to better understand how to prevent and treat disease.
After a collie punctured her tongue and injured her larynx while playing fetch, veterinarians across the United Kingdom (UK) are now warning dog owners not to allow their dogs to play with sticks. Grace Webster, president of the British Veterinary Association's Scottish branch, told UK newspaper The Times that playing fetch with sticks “can be dangerous and lead to horrific injuries.”
The dark techno-drama Black Mirror was an instant hit in the UK following its premiere on Channel 4 in 2011. But the cult dystopian show—which has been compared by many critics to a modern-day Twilight Zone with its acerbic and cutting commentary on voyeurism, technology, and societal norms—remained largely unknown outside the UK until its first full two seasons came to Netflix in late 2014. From there, it quickly gained mainstream attention and praise, and the (brilliant) Christmas special starring Mad Men's Jon Hamm was especially well received by American entertainment critics.
Last week, the UK updated their requirements for all state-funded schools and academies (click "Church of England and Catholic single academy model supplemental agreement") to clearly prohibit the teaching of creationism as science. It's not exactly a groundbreaking change, since future schools and acadamies were already barred from teaching creationism, but the new language puts the requirements on existing schools and acadamies as well. For those who are unfamiliar with the UK system, this language refers to what in the US are called private schools, such as those run by religious institutions.
A group of forward-thinking military scientists want to plug soldiers' weapons directly into their brains, and this time DARPA is nowhere to be found. The Royal Society, the UK's national academy of scientific thought, issued a report today on the applications of neuroscience in the military and law enforcement contexts. Discussed therein: new performance-enhancing designer drugs, brain stimulation to boost brain function, and weapons systems that plug directly into the brain.
Prepare your tinfoil hats: A man in Dorset, UK, was showered with tiny spheres of blue goo that rained down from the sky during a hailstorm last week. The tiny, one-inch gelatinous spheres are odorless, are not sticky, and are not meteorological, British authorities say. Basically, no one has any real clue what they are. Somebody get PopSci chief space correspondent Newt Gingrich on the line.
