Spark*

It’s your Science & Technology editor, David Thai here! Well, one of the two of us anyway. Regular readers will have noticed a change: we used to have a column of “other news” on this page. I’ve decided that we shouldn’t limit ourselves so beginning this first issue of 2012/2013, we’ll be using the space for an editorial instead.

This issue opens with Vinay’s in-depth interview with Ross Beale, one of the team behind the new social networking app Mixer. It’s a fascinating read. Will Mixer be the next big thing in social networking? Have a read and perhaps have a go, and let us know what you think!

Then we join Frances McKean to consider the ethics and implications of transhumanism. It comes with a lovely piece of artwork from Hannah Tiernan. While I myself don’t have so much as a tattoo, I find transhumanism a fascinating concept: I for one think the prospect of enhancing our abilities with science and technology is an exciting one. Deputy Editor Calum drew my attention to Lepht Anonym who I looked up immediately. On the Wellcome Trust’s blog about their Superhuman exhibition, they consider the cases of “the artist, the scholar and the zealot” (http://wp.me/pJJaZ-2NP) where our very own Professor Kevin Warwick is the scholar, the artist is Stelarc and Lepht Anonym is dubbed a zealot. Lepht performs surgery on herself in the kitchen and has placed magnets in her fingertips to allow her to detect electromagnetic fields. A visionary, or a madwoman? That seems to roughly cover the range of opinion on what she does to herself. I think it’s amazing. Maybe I’m just weird?

Well that’s all we have time for this issue. Thanks for reading and see you next issue!