Denmark is a cycling nation, but our research shows rates are declining – here’s why
Lazy_Bear / Shutterstock.com Across Europe, cycling is being promoted as a key solution to cleaner, healthier travel. The European Commission recently published its first progress report on the European Declaration on Cycling, highlighting billions of euros in investment, thousands of kilometres of new or upgraded cycle infrastructure, and growing political commitment to treating cycling as […]
What anglers have taught me about saving England’s sharks
Thresher shark. Sean Steininger/Shutterstock I spent six days on a small fishing boat in the middle of the English Channel in July trying to catch a thresher shark. The weather was fickle, even at the height of summer. My colleague, ecologist Lucy Hawkes, and I were with two anglers who probably hold more experience of […]
How the ‘first bird’ leapt into the sky and soared above the dinosaurs
Archaeopteryx is an icon of evolution and is often called the first bird. Scientists have long debated just how it took off from the ground but a recent study published by my colleagues and I has brought new insights to the mystery. Our study compared Archaeopteryx with the anatomy of modern birds, and our findings […]
Eating a handful of nuts each day is linked with lower risk of high blood pressure, our research shows
Ahmet Misirligul/ Shutterstock More than 1.4 billion people worldwide live with high blood pressure (hypertension). It’s the single biggest metabolic risk factor for early death – driving diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and dementia. Most of these cases of high blood pressure are shaped by how we live and what we eat. […]
How Facebook’s News Feed kicked off the age of the algorithm
Wachiwit/Shutterstock It is two decades since Facebook introduced the News Feed – letting loose a world in which algorithms would shape ever more of our lives. In 2006, Facebook was facing something of a crisis. Its internal data suggested that for the first time since its launch two years earlier (as TheFacebook), the company had […]
The Long Version by Petra Hůlová is about a middle-aged feminist caught between the past and future
Woman Writing at a Desk, by John Lessore. John Lessore/The University of York, CC BY-NC The Long Version is a new novel which follows a short period in the life of Sylvie, a middle-aged writer who has just published a best-selling yet critic-dividing feminist book. We meet her at an event to launch her book. […]
Saltwater flooding could radically change which crops are worth growing
Farmland along the coast of Lincolnshire, UK. Alice Baddeley/Shutterstock Saltwater isn’t something most people associate with English farmland. But in parts of eastern England, it’s becoming a growing problem, and not just for crops, but for farm incomes too. In our new study focusing on Greater Lincolnshire, one of the UK’s most productive agricultural areas, […]
Why do I crash at 3pm? The science behind the ‘afternoon slump’
Images Products/ Shutterstock You’ve just finished eating lunch and you’re back at your desk, ready to dive into the rest of the day’s work. Yet by 3pm, you find your eyes starting to droop. Before long, the only thing you can think about is how much you’d like to take a nap. The “afternoon slump” […]
How beavers can help create fire breaks as part of a drought preparation plan
somov ivan/Shutterstock Most of the countryside around the Holnicote estate in Somerset has been dry and dusty for most of the summer. But one corner remains conspicuously green. Here in south-west England, an animal that was made extinct in Britain in the 16th century, mostly because of hunting, is making a comeback. Reintroduced just six […]
Body size cannot tell you how fit someone is, but it shapes how people are judged
DexonDee/Shutterstock US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has been criticised after sharing a photograph of two people in uniform from a Canadian youth cadet programme with the caption “this is real”. The image showed a teenage cadet receiving a medal from someone reported to be a volunteer instructor. The post was widely interpreted as mocking their […]