One can hardly pick up a newspaper or magazine these days without reading something about artificial intelligence, typically in relation to computer programmes or robots. In March 2017 a computer […]
Columnists
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Artificiality
Artificiality is an ambiguous concept. The Latin adjective artificialis (from ars, art, and facere, to make) was introduced by the Roman rhetorician Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. 35–100 AD), as a […]
Richard Smith: Coming to terms with “the second illness,” the fear of cancer
Mary Gunn, looking very well and wearing her 65 years lightly, stands in front of the audience in an Edinburgh bookshop describing how eight years ago she was diagnosed with […]
Matt Morgan: Poor hospital design has an impact on staff, patients, and healthcare
Simply the presence of a good physical environment signals organisational respect and care […]
Kieran Walsh: Bad education—too much text
John Banester (1533 -1610) was an English surgeon and educator. He learned his surgery by going to war—he went on a military expedition to the continent. On his return to England […]
Giles Maskell: Radiology without context becomes a game of “Where’s Wally”
When it comes to image interpretation, context can be all-important […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Automata, androids, replicants, and robots
The words automaton, android, replicant, and robot refer to pretty much the same thing. The word automaton (Greek αὐτόματον, a marionette), describing a device that moves by virtue of a […]
Neena Modi: UK healthcare should be retained as a primarily publicly funded, delivered, and accountable service
A mixed public-private healthcare system reduces the effectiveness of healthcare for everyone […]
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: Tectonic shifts
When I equated the quantum leap to the big bang, I overlooked another term borrowed from another science: tectonic shift. The adjective tectonic is older than modern geology; it comes […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Modes of speech: can and may, must and should
Which is better: “Aspirin can cause Reye’s syndrome” or “Aspirin may cause Reye’s syndrome”? The answer lies in a consideration of modal verbs, also called modal auxiliaries. Modal verbs are […]