Ann-Kathrin Lindemann

A science writer and communication scientist, Anka was born and raised in Munich, Germany. She moved to London in September 2010 to gather new experiences and study science journalism at City University. Her main interests are social science, technology and its impacts on society. And cooking. And chocolate.

[email protected]
Follow Anka on Twitter @Anka_Li
Find Anka's two blogs here: www.afterthoughtsonscience.wordpress.com
www.theunicookbook.wordpress.com

If I were to ask you if you trust your GP, would you say yes? Probably. According to the GP Patient Survey 2009, more than 90 per cent of the respondents trust their GPs in medical matters.
Michael Jones and Ann-Kathrin Lindemann took to streets to find out what the public think about the latest reforms.

Dr David Welbourn, from the Centre for Better Managed Health and Social Care

But where does this opinion come from? As Dr David Welbourn, from the Centre for Better Managed Health and Social Care, points out, experiences with the GPs themselves are often just a minor source in judging the National Health Care System:

“I think the consultation with the public is an interesting question about how that impacts on trust versus where people generate their trust in the system from. If you look at surveys that have been conducted, people’s perception of the NHS is more often driven by what they read about the NHS rather than what they encounter with it.”

So where does that trust come from? The trust comes from what they read in the media. One aspect that can lower the trust in GPs is the spreading use of self-testing kits. If you feel like you can diagnose almost everything by yourself, why should there be a need for a GP?”

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Jason Clarke and Mike Jones on top of City's Tait Building

The EU pledges to get 20% of its energy from low carbon technologies by 2020. Solar power is able to be harnessed from most parts of the continent, but is expensive to install and inefficient in some areas. The UK is currently rethinking some of its policies regarding feed-in-tariffs for larger solar farms and installations, which could undermine the growth of the industry. So despite its apparent appeal as a low-carbon energy source, it’s questionable as to whether it’s major viable alternative to fossil fuels or nuclear power.

Images taken by Anka Lindemann, all rights reserved

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When bands want to use pre-recorded samples in their live performances, they lose their freedom to change the tempo of their songs since the samples would than be out of synch. Dr Andrew Robertson from Queen Mary University developed a software that provides a solution for this problem.

 

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Web giants like Facebook and Google only want the best for us. Of course. Or maybe, what they really want is to make sure that we don’t switch to other social networks or search engines. Which is, in fact, a huge difference.

You may have already noticed that some of our friends on Facebook are remarkably – silent. They don’t seem to post any status updates, don’t seem to “Like” anything or comment on other people’s pictures. While you see regular status updates, links or videos posted by other people in your friends list, those who don’t seem to do anything slowly fade from your view.

Now here comes the “but”. In reality, those friends that don’t seem to be very active can be even more active users than those that regularly appear in your newsfeed. It’s just that Facebook thinks that you are not so interested in them, and therefore hides them from you.

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Testing is underway on Supratrans II, a potential revolution in mass transit

Levitating railways have long been the dream of many engineers: silent as a mouse, with no frictional resistance and low demand of energy compared with conventional trains.

These are just a few advantages magnetic levitation, or Maglev, railways have in comparison to other means of transport.

Only a few Maglev trains have been built so far; most of them are used just to connect two specific places like an airport and the city centre.

But with the development of SupraTrans II by the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Germany) we might be a small step closer to whole networks of maglev trains.

The team of researchers, headed by Professor Ludwig Schultz, are testing a maglev train that works with a superconductor. Continue reading »

Memberships

Member Button linking to the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) - an association of science writers, journalists, broadcasters and science-based communications professionals - many of whom are available for freelance work