As Britain’s death toll from Covid-19 passes 100,000, there is one burning question: why did so many have to die? Tom Clark, Gaby Hinsliff and Philip Ball chart the persistent failures—from both the chief scientists and the politicians. Former head of the Supreme Court Brenda Hale takes on the human rights sceptics and Rana Mitter asks whether China's grip on Hong Kong means the end of the historic freedoms in the city.
Peter Bazalgette's apologia for dangerous new internet tracking technologies fails to realise that, without privacy protection, our economy will suffer
This year's Democratic primaries weren't just fought on the hustings and in the television studios. Some of the fiercest battles took place in the blogosphere
The Greek-born socialite has shaken up American political media with her website the Huffington Post. But by revolutionising news, might she also be in danger of destroying it?
The openness of "generative" technologies like the PC and the internet has led to great innovations—but also to an upward spiral of viruses, worms and spam. Such bad code threatens to derail the internet and promote "sterile" appliances like the…
Modern video games mean big business, and big controversy. Yet most of the charges levelled against games—that they stunt minds and spark addiction—are based on an outdated understanding of what gamers do when they sit down to play
Critics of websites such as Wikipedia and MySpace claim they are eroding expertise and denuding the public sphere. Today's media may not be perfect, says james crabtree, but would anyone really want to put the clock back?
Over the last year, the virtual world Second Life has grown from a niche activity into a major phenomenon. Thousands are making money from it, and corporations are taking an interest. The distinction between real and virtual worlds is becoming…
Classical recording did more than just capture musical sound forever—it gave rise to a whole culture of appreciation based on common ownership of records and CDs. That culture is dying as major labels slash recordings and the internet returns music,…
The Google search engine is making many of the world's great libraries available online. Is this an advance for scholarship, or, as a French librarian argues, a victory for Anglo-Saxon bias and trivialisation?
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