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Genetic engineering, IVF and gene testing have proved safer than feared My Times column is on the risks of genetic research and therapy: Fifteen years after the first sequencing of the human genome, the genetic engineering of human beings is getting closer. Will that mean designer babies and the rich winning life’s lotteries from the […]

It’s about violence and religious extremism, not population pressure My Times column on African demography and the migration crisis: Even the most compassionate of European liberals must wonder at times whether this year’s migration crisis is just the beginning of a 21st- century surge of poor people that will overwhelm the rich countries of our […]

Recent scandals expose poor governance and irresponsible activism My Times column on charities: David Cameron, luxuriating in the prospect of weak opposition, has a chance to think about radical reform of both the private and public sectors. But there is a third sector that requires his attention even more urgently. He is well known to […]

Britain’ ministers finally realise vaping is rapidly killing smoking My Times Thunderer article on vaping:   The government now says vaping with e-cigarettes is such a good thing that we should be prescribing it and smokers should be rushing to take it up. It’s 95 per cent less harmful than smoking, it’s helping people to […]

Environmental threats are often exaggerated, and remedies do more harm My Wall Street Journal column on how green scares have led to counterproductive actions: ‘We’ve heard these same stale arguments before,” said President Obama in his speech on climate change last week, referring to those who worry that the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon-reduction plan may do […]

The silence of universe seems ominous. Was Earth lucky? My Times column on the paradox that planets seem to be abundant, but signs of life are rare: The search for another world that can sustain life is getting warmer. We now know of 1,879 planets outside the solar system. A few weeks ago, we (the […]

A binding agreement to non-binding targets looks likely My Times column on the coming summit on climate policy in Paris:   The first council of Nicea, held 1,690 years ago this summer, decided upon a consensus about the nature of God, namely that the son had been “begotten not made, being of one substance with […]

Devalue, restructure and be master of your own fate My Times column on the economy of Iceland:   I spent part of last week in Iceland, the antithesis of Greece. It’s been a hard winter and a cold spring up there, but despite the stiff northerly breeze off the Arctic ocean, economically speaking Iceland is […]

Britain’s tax code is among the most complex in the world My recent Times column on tax simplification:   Can we try tax simplification, please? Though I applaud the motive, I am not sure I fully understand George Osborne’s plan to cut inheritance tax. I gather that if you hand your family home to your […]

Policy-based evidence making is all too frequent in climate science In June I published a lengthy essay in Quadrant magazine on the effect that the global warming debate is having on science itself:   For much of my life I have been a science writer. That means I eavesdrop on what’s going on in laboratories […]