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Scott L. Montgomery

Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington
Scott L. Montgomery is a university lecturer and author. His research and publications include areas in both the humanities and sciences, in particular history of science, intellectual history, language studies, and energy resources, technology, and security. He is the author, most recently, of The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Built the Modern World (2015, with Daniel Chirot), A History of Science in World Cultures (2015, with Alok Kumar), Does Science Need a Global Language? (2013) and The Powers That Be: Global Energy for the Twenty-First Century and Beyond (2010). Forthcoming are: Grandeur in this View: The Impact of Charles Darwin on the Modern World, and Seeing the Light: Making the Case for Nuclear Power in the 21st Century.

Oil in Global Economy Series

Oil price shocks have a long history, but today's situation may be the most complex ever

Mar 12, 2022 11:27 am UTC| Economy

The world is in the grip of an oil price shock. In just a few months, prices have risen from US$65 a barrel to over $130, causing fuel costs to surge, inflationary pressure to rise and consumer tempers to flare. Even...

Oil in Global Economy Series

Why the US-Iran conflict isn’t driving oil prices higher – and why it probably should

Jan 18, 2020 12:10 pm UTC| Insights & Views

Assassinations, militaries on high alert, geopolitical tensions at the boil. Any one of these in Persian Gulf countries would have roiled oil prices a few years ago. Today, even in combination, they hardly register. Is...

Attacks on Saudi oil – why didn't prices go crazy?

Sep 25, 2019 01:21 am UTC| Insights & Views

Energy experts and scholars like me have long wondered what the impact would be from a major attack on Saudi Arabias oil facilities. For decades, the Saudis were the worlds top exporter and swing producer, able to change...

Cheap oil is blocking progress on climate change

Dec 16, 2018 13:03 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy

The relationship between supply and demand, a fundamental economic concept, holds that when the price of something rises, people use less of it. Similarly, when prices fall, they use more. And it may seem logical that...

Economy

The US is one of the least trade-oriented countries in the world – despite laying the groundwork for today’s globalized system

Given the spate of news about international trade lately, Americans might be surprised to learn that the U.S. isnt very dependent on it. Indeed, looking at trade as a percentage of gross domestic product a metric...

Beyond the spin, beyond the handouts, here’s how to get a handle on what’s really happening on budget night

Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, TV or news websites on budget night. The quickest way to find out what...

Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility

Ivan Vladislavić is Johannesburgs literary linkman. He tells us, in the first pages of his new book, The Near North, that before cities were lit, first by gaslight and later electricity, people of means paid torchbearers...

Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget

With Jim Chalmerss third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief beyond the tax cuts although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As this weeks consumer price...

Inflation is slowly falling, while student debt is climbing: 6 graphs that explain today’s CPI

Australias inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and its now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. The annual rate peaked at 7.8% in the December quarter of 2022 and is now just 3.6%, in...

Politics

US Urges China, Russia to Reject AI Control in Nuclear Arms, Align with Global Norms

Paul Dean, a senior U.S. arms control official, emphasized the critical need for China and Russia to join the U.S. in declaring that humans will always decide on the deployment of nuclear weapons, not artificial...

South Africa’s youth are a generation lost under democracy – study

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently painted a rosy picture in which the countrys youth democracys children had enormous opportunities for advancement, all thanks to successive post-apartheid governments led...

Sadiq Khan on track for third term as London mayor – but nearly half of Londoners dissatisfied with performance

Polls have consistently shown that the incumbent mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, appears to be on track to win a third term in office at the upcoming mayoral elections on May 2. One poll we commissioned as part of our...

Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’

Most American workers are hired at will: Employers owe their employees nothing in the relationship except earned wages, and employees are at liberty to quit at their option. As the rule is generally stated, either party...

Labour can afford to be far more ambitious with its economic policies – voters are on board

To say that the Labour party is flying high in the polls is something of an understatement. But despite its consistent lead against the Tories, the opposition finds itself in a rather odd position: on the cusp of power but...

Science

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook

A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a mans home in Florida. Nasa later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the international space station. The 700g,...

Peter Higgs was one of the greats of particle physics. He transformed what we know about the building blocks of the universe

Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, has died aged 94. He was always a modest man, especially when considering that he was one of the greats of particle physics the area of...

Technology

Vodafone Ventures into Crypto Integration: SIM Cards to Host Blockchain Wallets

Vodafone, the UK-based telecom giant, is pioneering a groundbreaking initiative to fuse blockchain technology with smartphone functionality by integrating cryptocurrency wallets directly into SIM cards. This innovative...

Leak: Huawei's Kirin PC Chip, Qingyun Notebooks to Launch Next Month

Leaked information hinting at the imminent debut of the highly anticipated Kirin PC chip alongside the release of new Qingyun notebooks. The introduction of this computer-dedicated CPU marks a significant milestone for...

Tesla Enhances Model Y Lineup with Longer-Range Variant, Price Adjustment

Tesla has revamped its Model Y offerings, bidding farewell to the standard range rear-wheel-drive (RWD) model while introducing a longer-range variant for an additional $2,000. This strategic maneuver aligns with Teslas...

Shiba Inu Coin Rockets as Burn Rate Skyrockets 1000% Amidst Market Rally

Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB) ignites the crypto market with a phenomenal rally, propelled by a staggering 1000% surge in burn rates. As 29.11 million SHIB tokens are destroyed, market confidence soars, pushing SHIB past crucial...

Dogecoin Surges 13% as Network Activity Soars, Hits 28,000 New Addresses

Dogecoin experiences a remarkable surge, with its price skyrocketing by 13% in response to an unprecedented rise in network activity. On-chain analytics reveal a staggering influx of 28,000 new addresses, signaling renewed...