New and traditional examples to understand a complex technology and its ethics — A shiny new technology is taking the establishment by storm. No, not blockchain, machine learning, or Web3. It’s digital twins, a digital solution to analysing, understanding, maintaining, and improving both physical and social infrastructures. Now, I am not the most technologically savvy person — your reading a post in Towards…

Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” helps analyse the ethics of Tu Youyou discovering an effective malaria treatment in the midst of a dictatorship — This is the final part of a series on some of the key historical events that led to China’s eradication of indigenous cases of malaria in 2017. In this post, I focus on Tu Youyou’s recognition since working on Project 523. A great scientific finding was made in 1970s China…

On the Secretive Military Operation against Malaria — This is the second of a three-part series on some of the key historical events that led to China’s eradication of indigenous cases of malaria in 2017. In this post, I briefly outline the political environment that enabled the success of Project 523. Project 523 was launched on 23 May…

Power Couple from Fourth Century China leave Legacy for Modern Medicine — This is the first of a three-part series on some of the key historical events that led to China’s eradication of indigenous cases of malaria in 2021. In this part, I introduce Ge Hong and Bao Gu, whose work in the fourth century significantly influenced advances in modern medicine. Ge…

A brief tale of early professionalisation of science, and the importance of power in allyship — This is the final part of a six-part series on the establishment of the modern scientific academy. With each part of the series, we discuss different topics pertaining to the ethics of research. The present post introduces us to the first woman* to head a scientific institute. …

A brief history of the Académie des Sciences’ “Comptes Rendus” and moving ancient publications online — This is the fifth of a six-part series on the establishment of the modern scientific academy. With each part of the series, we will discuss different topics pertaining to the ethics of research. The present post provides an illustration of some tensions that can emerge between science institutes and the…

The early days of the world’s oldest academic journal, featuring the Elzévier family, Leibniz and Locke — This is the fourth of a six-part series on the establishment of the modern scientific academy. With each part of the series, we will discuss different topics pertaining to the ethics of research. The present post touches on the practices of printers and pirates in the early days of the…

On interdisciplinarity in academic publications and some policy changes of Philosophical Transactions — This is the third of a six-part series on the establishment of the modern scientific academy. With each part of the series, we will discuss different topics pertaining to the ethics of research. The present post touches on the interdisciplinarity of academic journals, and proposes four stages for the analysis…

A brief look into the role of governments in establishing some of Europe’s oldest science institutes — This is the second of a six-part series on the establishment of the modern scientific academy. With each part of the series, we will discuss different topics pertaining to the ethics of research. The present post touches on the role of government on the functioning of scientific institutes. …