Author: Diane Shipley

Staff Writer Diane is especially interested in high-tech medical advances, weird and interesting uses of science, new gadgets, and the intersection of tech and lifestyle. When not working, she reads the internet, listens to podcasts, watches American TV, and thinks about leaving the house.

This piano turns clouds into music

A French museum of modern art has commissioned an installation that makes music from the weather. (Probably a better way to handle the end of summer than moaning to everyone you know about it being September.) With the help of digital and musical experts at the University of Minnesota, American artist David Bowen, who specialises…

Wine only protects your heart if you exercise, says study

Most of us have heard/celebrated the news that wine is good for heart health. But it turns out that it only works if you exercise too. Scientists started publishing research showing a link between drinking a glass or two of wine and a lowered risk of cardiovascular disease in the early 90s. Several studies have…

Computer scientists want to translate the internet into sign language

Computer scientists have developed a new way for the internet to transmit information to deaf people. Because speech is such an important part of language acquisition and ‘hearing’ words in our heads helps us learn to read and write, deaf people often struggle with written English. If, as many do, they learn to speak using…

Scientists can turn bad memories into good ones (kind of)

Weirdly, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Men in Black might not have been that far off the mark with their memory-wiping devices. We’re not quite there yet, but while we wait, scientists have discovered a way to change bad memories into good ones. They were particularly interested in place-specific memories, as we store…

Amazon’s released its new round of pilots (and wants to know what you think)

It’s Amazon pilots season again: when they unveil initial episodes of several prospective online series and allow customers (and critics) to tell them what we think. This time around, everyone’s favourite geek from the O.C, Adam Brody, has a lead role in The Cosmopolitans, a Paris-set comedy about a group of expats that also stars…

Moviegoers don’t care about CGI, say neuroscientists

All those fantastical worlds filmmakers create on computers might give movies an impressive backdrop or stunningly scary monsters, but when it comes to CGI, it turns out viewers' natural reaction is... meh. Neuroscientists from Birkbeck teamed up with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AKA the Oscars people) and Swedish eye tracking company…

IBM’s artifical intelligence program Watson is helping medical research

It might not have the charm of Martin Freeman, but IBM’s cognitive computing program Watson could even out-think Sherlock Holmes. Three years ago, it beat US quiz show Jeopardy’s most successful contestant of all time, Ken Jennings. In future, it could help cure diseases. This week, scientists from the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas…

Eight futuristic running and fitness gadgets to look forward to

Running brings all kinds of rewards – from providing time to listen to your favourite songs to preventing disease. But like everything else, it's even more worthwhile if you can add some fun tech to the mix. There are some great gadgets and wearables on the market already, but here are some we'll see over the…

Overconfidence is the key to success, says study

If you’ve ever dealt with the manager of a company and wondered how they got into that position considering they don’t really seem to know what they’re doing, a new study explains how that happens. It’s all about (over)confidence. Researchers from Newcastle University and the University of Exeter discovered that other people’s opinions of our…