How many people died? It's one of the first questions asked in a
war or violent conflict, but it's one of the hardest to answer.
In the chaos of war many deaths go unrecorded and all sides have
an interest in distorting the figures. The best we can do is
come up with estimates, but the trouble is that different
statistical methods for doing this can produce vastly different
results . So how do we know how different methods compare?
Plants are amazingly good at something that is still flummoxing
us humans in our quest for sustainable energy sources: turning
sunlight into energy in an efficient way. Around 100 bilions
tons of biomass are produced annually through photosynthesis.
The question is, how exacty do plants do it? Yesterday's refusal
by the UK government to posthumously pardon Alan Turing makes
sad news for maths, computer science and the fight against
discrimination. But even if symbolic gestures are, symbolically,
being rebuffed, at least Turing's most important legacy — the
scientific one — is going