Catherine Opie: To Be Seen – who gets to be visible, belong and be remembered?
This summer, as Edinburgh comes alive with the Festival, one of the most significant figures in contemporary photography comes to Scotland for the first time. Curated in collaboration with the artist, Catherine Opie: To Be Seen at the Royal Scottish Academy features nearly 80 works spanning more than three decades of her pioneering photography. Across […]
What Spider-Man: Brand New Day can teach us about loss and grief
This article contains spoilers for Spider-man: Brand New Day Spider-Man’s origin story in the comics is rooted in the death of his Uncle Ben. He is a hero driven by grief – on a mission, to begin with, to avenge his uncle’s death. In the latest iteration of Spider-Man, however, his grief is different. In […]
We might soon have the technology to reach other star systems
The recent confirmation of an atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet called LHS 1140b has created a wave of interest within the astronomy community. The planet orbits within the habitable zone around its parent star – a red dwarf located some 48 light years from Earth. The habitable zone is the region around the star where […]
Prisoner release: Andy Burnham’s difficult choices
SeventyFour/Shutterstock The UK may have a new prime minister, but the problem of prison overcrowding in England and Wales remains. Andy Burnham recently clarified the details of the Sentencing Act 2026, which aims to release prisoners earlier than usual. Like other PMs before him, Burnham faces a difficult choice between addressing the overcrowded and chaotic […]
Firefighting aircraft aren’t enough – Britain needs to build a wildfire-resilient society that involves everyone
Calls for a dedicated UK national wildfire service are growing louder. Given the huge recent fires across the country, this is an understandable reaction – people see specialist aircraft used in Spain, Portugal and Greece and want the UK to have something similar. Sudden climatic stresses are increasing periods of prolonged heat, drought and dry […]
The Ceuta border incident shows how EU migration can be ‘weaponised’ – but overall levels are declining
It took one night in Ceuta to end a relatively quiet summer on Europe’s southern border. Over 70,000 people entered the Spanish enclave from Morocco between July 30 and 31, most of them swimming around the heavily guarded border fences. For comparison, at the peak of the 2015-16 migration crisis, Italy received over 180,000 irregular […]
Are cats getting tamer – or is it people who are changing?
DimaBerlin/Shutterstock Around 15 years ago, I created a Facebook page for my cat, Sandi. Friends thought it was weird. Today, social media accounts for cats attract millions of followers, cats travel in backpacks and prams, and surveys consistently show that the overwhelming majority of owners regard their pets as family. I’ve previously written about how […]
The neuroscience behind a ‘runner’s high’
Many describe a runner’s high as a feeling of ‘euphoria.’ Prostock-studio/ Shutterstock While most runners are chasing after a new goal or a personal best, some are chasing after something slightly more elusive: a runner’s high. Some describe it as euphoria. Others as calm, clarity or even a sense of being completely absorbed in the […]
Adding an AI tool to Google Earth shook our trust in maps that has been centuries in the making
An 1818 map of western Africa shows the continent bisected by the mythical ‘Mountains of Kong’, based on the explorations of Mungo Park. Image: John Pinkerton’s A Modern Atlas via Wikimedia Commons Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Europe’s cartographers traded on their reputation for accuracy and detail at a time of huge societal change. […]
How Queen Caroline turned King Arthur into an 18th-century royal PR strategy
Merlin Presenting the Future King Arthur by Emil Lauffer (1909). Sotheby’s Amid family feuds, damaging headlines and questions about its future role, Britain’s royal family has spent much of the past decade managing its public image. But the importance of good royal PR dates back centuries. Long before communications teams and media advisers became fixtures […]