The strange history of Czech cactus hunters – and why some see themselves as Robin Hood figures
Four Czech men were arrested at Guarulhos International Airport in São Paolo, Brazil in February this year on charges of smuggling native species. Brazil is a well-known centre of the illegal bird and pet trade, but allegations of an attempted theft of more than 100 cactus plants and some 2,000 seeds were perhaps more surprising. […]
What Netflix’s Little House On The Prairie remake says about today’s culture wars
Time to dust off the gingham: Netflix is about to release a new adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved frontier stories. The series will revisit Little House on the Prairie (1935), the best-known of her books. For nearly a century, Wilder’s fictionalised accounts of her experiences on the American frontier in the 1870s and 1880s […]
Five ways to make your clothes last longer
Kmpzzz/Shutterstock Care labels on clothes are no longer enough for supporting consumers to enjoy their clothes for longer. Clothing retailers will face growing pressure to think about the whole lifecycle of their products with the forthcoming European introduction of a policy called extended producer responsibility – this holds fashion brands and manufacturers responsible for managing […]
Why unelected power brings us a strange comfort
1000 Words/Shutterstock The UK is not usually thought of as the kind of country that’s prone to a coup d’état. Yet in the UK too, power can change hands without a general election. Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Theresa May, Liz Truss – in each case, internal party dynamics determined who occupied 10 Downing Street. In […]
Consciousness: how ‘working memory’ may mysteriously give rise to it
You know that feeling when you walk into a room and immediately forget why you came in? Maybe you were there to fetch your keys. On your way to the room, you were thinking about grabbing your keys. But once you arrive, your keys have completely disappeared from your mind. This is sometimes known as […]
UK plans conversion ‘therapy’ ban – what the draft legislation says
Howard Cheng/Shutterstock After eight years of successive governments pledging action, the UK government has finally published draft legislation to ban conversion practices in England and Wales. If enacted, it would create new criminal offences to protect people from attempts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. The proposals come as international momentum has grown. […]
Prehistoric plague could have caused population collapse in stone age Europe
Did a major epidemic of plague trigger a prolonged collapse in Europe’s population in late neolithic times – from around 5,600 to 4,000 years ago? In Europe, the neolithic is part of the stone age, spanning the time from the introduction of agriculture by migrant groups from Anatolia, up until the bronze age. Scientists now […]
Food noise: why thoughts about eating aren’t always something to be feared
‘Food noise’ refers to near-constant thoughts of food and eating that some people experience. Inside Creative House/ Shutterstock When you’re hungry, it’s normal to find yourself thinking about what you’re going to eat next. But for some people, thoughts of food and eating can feel constant – even when they’re not physically hungry. This experience […]
The 2026 World Cup is the greatest architectural experiment in the tournament’s history
When football commentators analyse a World Cup match, they tend to focus on tactics, technical ability, physical conditioning and psychology. If a team wins away from home, we hear about mentality. If a player scores a spectacular goal, we praise their vision or instinct. Yet there is another factor that receives remarkably little attention: the […]
Inclusion bases in mainstream schools – the evidence for this government policy is lacking
Halfpoint/Shutterstock Government plans for schools in England have set out a vision for inclusive mainstream education. This would see children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) learning in the same place as their peers without these needs. A central feature of these plans are “inclusion bases”. Many schools already have spaces […]