Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and artificial intelligence researchers published a letter calling for a ban on autonomous weapons. This is an easy first step. A ban that works in practice will be much harder.

New research shows that conscious and non-conscious thought processes can both alleviate and enhance the experience of painWhen we say that we are “in pain”, we usually mean that an injured body part is hurting us. But the phenomenon we call pain consists of more than just physical sensations, and often has mental and emotional aspects, too. Pain signals entering the black box of the brain can be subjected further processing, and these hidden thought processes can alter the way we perceive them.We still know very little about these non-physical aspects of pain, or about the brain processes responsible for them. We do know, however, that learning and mental imagery can both diminish and enhance the experience of felt pain. Two new studies now extend these findings – one shows that subliminal learning can also alter pain responses, and the other explains how mental imagery can do so. Continue reading...

This readable study by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski attempts to measure the influence of mortal terror on human affairsErnest Becker’s The Denial of Death (1973) made the striking claim that human activity is driven largely by unconscious efforts to deny and transcend mortality. “We build character and culture in order to shield ourselves from the devastating awareness of underlying helplessness and terror of our inevitable death,” observed Becker. The authors of The Worm at the Core extended Becker’s work with a presentation in 1984 at a meeting of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. They called it “Terror Management Theory”. The reception was lukewarm. As the authors recount, “renowned psychologists were storming for the exits”.Undeterred, they approached the journal of the American Psychological Association with a paper on the theory of terror management. The editor insisted their ideas wouldn’t be taken seriously unless some hard evidence could be provided (Becker’s work was built largely around psychoanalytic theory rather than empirical research). Continue reading...

The Bridges Conference is an annual event that explores the connections between art and mathematics. Here is a selection of the work being exhibited this year, from a Pi pie which vibrates the number pi onto your hand to delicate paper structures demonstrating number sequences. This year’s conference runs until Sunday in Baltimore. Continue reading...

The most powerful aurora ever recorded has been spotted above a failed star 18 light years away, solving a longstanding astronomical mysteryThe sky above a failed star in a distant constellation shimmers with a beautiful green and yellow aurora one million times brighter than the northern lights. The spectacular light show is the first confirmed aurora on a body outside the solar system, and the most powerful ever recorded.

UK Cabinet Office report sets out risks of coronal mass ejections from the sun causing power outages, and disruption of GPS and communicationsHumanity would only have a 12-hour warning about the arrival of a “coronal mass ejection” that could damage the National Grid, pipelines and railway signals, according to a newly released document from the UK Cabinet Office.

With the immediate excitement of the Pluto flyby behind us, here are the ten most important things we now know about this fascinating worldStuart Clark is the author of The Unknown Universe (Head of Zeus). He is teaching the Guardian Masterclass, How the Universe Works in September. Continue reading...

We want to hear from you, our science readers, about how you want to see the blog network develop in the futureIn 2010, the Guardian launched an experiment: a small network of science blogs written by experts in their respective fields, with a remit to entertain, enrage, and inform. Nearly five years later, and the science blog network has expanded from its original five blogs to fifteen, covering a huge range of topics - from epidemiology, mathematics and physics, to the history of science, zoology, palaeontology, and more.Over those five years, the thirst for great science content on the web has grown tremendously and the popularity of the science blog network, and the insight that our expert writers offer, has never been higher. Science isn’t stagnant though; by its very nature, it is a continual process of reflection, revision and improvement. With that in mind, our upcoming fifth birthday seems like an excellent opportunity to take stock and start to think about the future of the network. Continue reading...

Once a certain level of income or comfort becomes your default position, you can be sure it’ll stop delivering pleasure by contrast with earlier experiencesA couple of years ago, I got to fly in the ultra-luxurious business class of an especially high-end airline; and now all lesser air travel – which means all other air travel, basically – is ruined for me forever. I’m not expecting an outpouring of sympathy for my plight. But I did feel a flicker of vindication when I read, via Scientific American, about a new study on the psychology of restaurant diners: serve them a really delicious appetizer followed by a mediocre main course, it seems, and they’ll rate the main course much more negatively than if had been preceded by something equally mediocre.The researchers – whose results were published in the appropriately titled journal Food Quality and Preference – gave participants a boring pasta dish, preceded by an appetizer of bruschetta, made either with excellent fresh ingredients, or uninspiring dried ones. The resulting difference in their assessments of the pasta illustrates a phenomenon known as “hedonic contrast”, and it’s a familiar one to food psychologists and restaurateurs alike: what counts as tasty depends on what came before. If you’re planning to dine at Olive Garden, don’t pop into Nobu for a quick amuse-bouche first. Continue reading...

Immigration was a serious issue for the Victorians - like modern Britons they worried about migrants from eastern Europe, but unlike them the people they thought ‘didn’t identify with Britain’ were Jews, not Muslims. Vanessa Heggie looks at how these fears drove the founding, and location, of the first Jewish Hospital in Britain.Some Victorian anxieties about immigration would look very familiar to us today: politicians, newspapers and the (wo)man in the street were worried by both new immigrants and by second or third generation citizens who they feared were ‘unassimilated’ and perhaps – to use David Cameron’s phrase – ‘did not really identify with Britain’. These worries included the fear of violence and terrorism: not from Muslims, but from Jews, who came to Britain in increasing numbers after 1880 fleeing pogroms in the Russian empire. Although it was probably Irish Fenians that British people most associated with violent attacks, in the popular imagination Jews were linked to anarchists, who also appeared to pose a threat to social stability. On a smaller scale, popular belief linked Jews with anti-social petty crime, and with larger criminal gangs (Fagin is just one of many literary representations of this stereotype).Immigration, particularly from eastern Europe, was blamed for high unemployment rates and low wages, as British trade unions (and others) claimed Jews had lower standards of living and would therefore work for lower wages, and in worse conditions. At the same time, even with a very limited welfare system, there were fears that immigrants would also ‘swamp’ or ‘overwhelm’ workhouses, hospitals, soup kitchens, and other forms of state assistance or private charity. The result of these fears was the Aliens Act of 1905, the first piece of legislation controlling immigration to Britain, which basically banned the immigration of poor people, or those deemed ‘undesirable’ because of ill-health, criminal records, and so on. Continue reading...