Steve Connor



Profile:
Full name:

Area of interest: Science

Journals/Organisation: The Independent

Email: [mailto:s.connor@independent.co.uk s.connor@independent.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/steve-connor

Blog:

Representation:

Networks:



Biography:
About:

Education:

Career:

Current position/role:


 * also writes/written for:

Other roles/Main role:

Other activities:

Disclosures:

Viewpoints/Insight:

Broadcast media:

Video:

Controversy/Criticism: Steve Connor is an angry man - Ben Goldacre, Bad Science blog, 1st July 2009

Awards/Honours: Top prize for Independent's Science Editor, The world's most eminent space and earth scientists have awarded Steve Connor, Science Editor of The Independent the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism, The Independent, 23rd July 2011

Scoops:

Other:



Books & Debate:


Latest work: Paraphernalia: The curious lives of magical things OCLC 732797957 Reviewed by Michael Bywater, The Independent, 22nd July 2011

Speaking/Appearances:

Current debate: 

The Independent:
Column name:

Remit/Info:

Section:

Role:

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:s.connor@independent.co.uk s.connor@independent.co.uk]

Website:

Commissioning editor:

Day published:

Regularity:

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * Immunotherapy: The secret of teaching the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells - It is increasingly apparent that the immune system naturally attacks cancer cells, which are probably produced all the time in the body - 16th February 2016
 * Homo naledi: Discovery of new species means link between intelligence and brain size is no longer clear - Mix of ancient and modern features appears to set these hominins apart as a separate species of Homo - 11th September 2015
 * change: A 'pause' in global warming? Not on this evidence'' - 2015 is likely to follow 2014 and 2010 as the next record hot year - 29th August 2015
 * The Prime Meridian line is 100 metres away from where we thought, but at least the anomaly is only confined to Greenwich - A small crumb of comfort is that the anomaly is only at Greenwich and it does not mean that the entire lines of longitude elsewhere in the world all now have also be move 102 metres east - 14th August 2015
 * Saturated fats in meat and dairy may not be as bad for you as once thought, but I'd still stick to fresh fruit and wine - Yet another study appears to have overturned previous advice on cutting down on butter, eggs, red meat and other food containing saturated fats - 12th August 2015
 * The global population is predicted to soar to 11.2bn by 2100, and it will impact Africa most - The concentration population growth in some of the world's poorest countries will put intolerable pressure on the attempts to combat poverty and malnutrition - 11th August 2015
 * HIV pill: The logic of paying £500 a month so gay men don’t have to wear condoms - It could save hundreds of millions of pounds that would be spent on treating HIV infections - 25th February 2015
 * Virgin Galactic crash: Can joyriding in space for the super-rich survive? - Break-up over Mojave Desert happened during first test flight of a new plastic-based rocket propellant - 3rd November 2014
 * There’s nothing wrong with GM - The fact that Britain is on the verge of becoming the first country in the world to permit mitochondrial donation in law should be applauded - 28th July 2014
 * H5N1 virus research: It’s a small risk, with a lethal implication - The strain of flu is difficult to transmit from person to person through air droplets - 21st December 2013
 * Logging has allowed poachers to pick off the African forest elephant at their will - The ivory of these rainforest-dwelling creatures is harder and therefore more desirable - 19th December 2013
 * Discovering graphene was only the start - its potential is almost limitless - We could yet see it used in goods as diverse as condoms and lexible electronics - 21st November 2013
 * It seems global warming is making storms worse – but some say it’s hot air - Did global warming make Typhoon Haiyan worse than it would otherwise have been? Impossible to say for sure, but many scientists believe that higher temperatures are increasingly likely to tip the scale in favour of ever-more severe tropical cyclones - 13th November 2013
 * Large Hadron Collider exhibition review: Art and science collide with spectacular results at the Science Museum - A pocket version of probably the most complicated scientific machine on the planet on display - 12th November 2013
 * Geo-engineering has the potential to destroy as well as preserve - The IPCC report has placed geongineering firmly on the agenda - 3rd October 2013
 * Fukushima plant could remain a hazard for at least 30 years - 11th September 2013
 * One of the biggest mysteries in the universe is all in the head - There is something special about the human brain, which is why the idea of growing brains in a lab raises ethical concerns about how far this work can or should be taken - 31st August 2013
 * Methane gas can dramatically change the global climate - There are large uncertainties in the $60tn figure - 25th July 2013
 * This is a powerful technology that can harm as well as benefit the human race - Synthetic biology could be used to create lethal strains of microbes or to 'weaponise' viruses - 12th July 2013
 * Extreme weather patterns are still a mystery - Summer has finally arrived, and not before time - 6th July 2013
 * If GM crops are bad, show us the evidence - It’s no longer tenable to call GM ‘unnatural’ and so inherently wrong - 3rd June 2013
 * What is it about sending people into space? - By sending living beings like ourselves into space we can come closer to the shear thrill and danger of travelling to a far-away place - 28th May 2013
 * Rising sea levels threaten to overwhelm us, but there is still work which can - and must - be done - Around 10 million people each year are currently affected by coastal flooding and this number is likely to triple as more and more people migrate to coastal regions - 15th May 2013
 * Even if gene therapy does work, how will a stretched NHS foot the bill? - Gene therapy is one of those medical "breakthroughs" that has unfortunately failed to live up to expectations - 30th April 2013
 * Could this stimulate the development of Twitter on steroids? - The idea that someone could communicate with another person through thought alone falls into the realm of science fiction. Telepathy after all is the communication of thoughts by mysterious mechanisms which cannot be explained by science – in other words, fiction - 1st March 2013
 * Smog: A problem the Chinese will find hard to eradicate - China’s air-quality crisis can be compared in some respects to Britain’s more than half a century ago, before the Clean Air Act of 1956. But there are important differences that could make China’s problem more difficult to tackle - 30th January 2013
 * How the 'Kochtopus' stifled green debate - Behind the climate 'countermovement' are two billionaire brothers - 24th January 2013
 * This GM breakthrough could be the first of many - An American licence to permit the commercial development and sale of genetically modified salmon could open the door on a new era of GM animals designed for human consumption - 2nd January 2013
 * A technology that goes one better than carbon capture could be crucial in fighting climate change - the latest developments prove British companies are at the forefront of innovation in the green sector - 19th October 2012
 * This isn't just natural variation – it's caused by global warming - What people forget is that sea ice is not fixed to the ground, it is easily blown about - 28th August 2012
 * This could revolutionise our view of the disease - It is now more than 30 years since scientists discovered the first 'tumor suppressor' gene - 19th April 2012
 * The quest for knowledge can be a dangerous thing - Knowledge may be pure, but its application can be misused for for the detriment of humanity - 20th December 2011
 * Why the Haiti earthquake may not have been a natural disaster - Deforestation and extreme weather may later cause earthquakes, scientists believe - 10th December 2011
 * Mox provide the answer this time around?'' - The debate over new nuclear reactors has overshadowed discussions about what should be done with Britain's immense stockpile of plutonium, which will exceed 100 tonnes when all of its spent nuclear fuel has been reprocessed - 10th October 2011
 * They're fast but still no match for the human brain - Alan Turing was a brilliant scientist so it should not be assumed he really thought computers could show the sort of intelligence displayed by the human mind - 8th September 2011
 * Big Tobacco's big fear is a brand-free packaging law - Tobacco advertising and promotion has been progressively curbed over the past few decades, which has led to greater emphasis on the fag packet - 2nd September 2011
 * Hair-splitting, brazen denials and six decades of dirty tricks - 'Anything can be considered harmful. Apple sauce is harmful if you get too much of it,' a Philip Morris memo claimed - 1st September 2011
 * Echoes of climate change battles are no accident - There are striking parallels between the attempt by the tobacco industry to seek academic research data held by Stirling University using the Freedom of Information law and the campaign to gain access to research data held by the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia - 1st September 2011
 * an ape learn to be human?'' - As two new films explore the human-like behaviour of chimpanzees, Steve Connor explains the fascination – and fear – we have about our closest living relatives - 5th August
 * reason we have to wait for useful results'' - One in 10 experiments involving the use of laboratory monkeys serves no benefit whatsoever, whether to scientific understanding, medicine or animal welfare - 28th July 2011
 * has been impossible to say these events were part of a bigger picture – until now'' - Meteorologists have always emphasised the difference between climate and weather, summing up the distinction by saying that "climate is what you expect, whereas weather is what you get" - 1st July 2011
 * painstaking way science really works'' - Science is a messy business. We like to think that it can give us clear-cut answers to difficult questions, but like any human endeavour it can frequently lead us up the wrong path - 3rd June 2011
 * gas emission targets could be undermined'' - One of the great unknowns of climate science is predicting the effect of "feedbacks" - 30th May 2011
 * finding an Aids vaccine matter any more?'' - People with HIV are no longer considered to be "dying of Aids", but "living with HIV" - 20th May 2011
 * nuclear industry must learn its lesson and stop building these white elephants'' - When the troubled Sellafield Mox Plant was built in the 1990s it had to wait several years before it was given an operating licence. The principal justification for awarding the licence in 2001 was the belief that it would supply hundreds of tonnes of mixed oxide (Mox) fuel to Japanese reactors and so provide a cash benefit for UK plc - 9th May 2011
 * do we solve the plutonium conundrum?'' - 6th May 2011
 * will offer relief for sleep-starved fiancée'' - Ed Miliband's future wife, was almost certainly the first person to realise that he had a problem with sleep apnoea, which literally means stopping breathing while asleep - 23rd April 2011
 * of water is the big headache for Tepco ...'' - Analysis: Pumping in fresh water has led to further build-ups of contaminated water - 19th April 2011
 * a money-making strategy from the 1960s left behind a toxic legacy'' - Instead of producing 120 tonnes of Mox fuel each year, the plant has produced just 13.8 tonnes since 2002 - 11th April 2011
 * may be on the brink of major instability'' - Decent science fiction has more than a grain of truth to it. So it was with The Day After Tomorrow, the movie that brought the esoteric science of ocean currents to cinema audiences - 6th April 2011



News & updates:


