Unusual senses: the secret superpowers of amphibians and reptiles
The Surinam toad’s hand. reptiles4all/Shutterstock The Surinam toad is one of the strangest frogs on Earth. Flat-bodied, tiny-eyed and adapted to the murky waters of the Amazon basin, it hunts well despite having very poor vision. When a fish swims close, the frog suddenly opens its mouth and sucks the prey inside in a fraction […]
Rhinos and elephants can cause huge problems if reintroduced badly – here’s how to get it right
Rhinos in the Kruger national park in South Africa. Karel Gallas/Shutterstock Moving large animals around is a seductive idea in conservation. If there are plenty of animals in one place and too few in another, moving some between the two seems an obvious solution. Sometimes it is. But with animals as large, mobile and socially […]
Does increased childcare funding help mothers into work?
SpeedKingz/Shutterstock Since Labour won the 2024 general election, policy focused on children in the early years – from birth to school age – and their parents has moved sharply up the political agenda. The government’s most expensive early years commitment so far has been its decision to honour the previous administration’s pledge to provide 30 […]
Partita by Barbara Kingsolver: the touching story of a musician striving to bring the movements of her life together
Woman Playing the Piano by Winifred Nicholson. Trustees of Winifred Nicholson/ The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, CC BY-NC A partita is a musical composition, often for a soloist. As Livia, the protagonist of Barbara Kingsolver’s new book, explains to Sigurd, as they begin an all-consuming romance, it’s “made up of a […]
Why endometriosis pain can continue after treatment
PeopleImages/Shutterstock Treatment for endometriosis can bring relief, but some women continue to have pelvic pain even after hormone treatment or surgery. For those who have spent years seeking help, continuing pain can be distressing and difficult to understand. Why does this happen? Sometimes endometriosis remains or returns. But pain can also involve other conditions, and […]
How will humans of the future be augmented? Six striking ideas from science fiction
The transformation of the human body has been a recurring concern of science fiction for more than 200 years. It has reflected both our hopes of overcoming physical limitations, and our fears about how technology may change what it means to be human. Science fiction is an important creative and speculative space in which to […]
Andy Burnham wants beer back in the stands – but football’s traditional fans have larger concerns
Andy Burnham, Everton fan and prime minister, has declared the ban on drinking pitch-side at football games to be discriminatory given that fans of other sports, even in the same ground, could happily enjoy a beer while watching a game. There have been several drinking trials in the women’s game. Surveys and police data showed […]
Why some Indigenous communities don’t resist oil extraction in their territories
An oil extraction site on the banks of the Napo river in Ecuador. SL-Photography/Shutterstock More than half of the Ecuadorian Amazon has been marked for oil drilling, overlapping with Indigenous territories and areas of high biodiversity. The ecological and cultural impacts of oil extraction are well documented, and have fuelled some of Latin America’s most […]
How pond algae led to a Nobel prize and a new way to study the brain
Scientists who worked out how to control brain cells with light have won this year’s Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were honoured for their research into “light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”. Peter Hegemann, at Humboldt University of Berlin, and Georg Nagel, at the University of Würzburg, wanted […]
The curious case of the bear in the Bayeux tapestry – what it tells us about baiting in medieval England
Try to imagine medieval England. You might picture knights, castles and battles. But what about bears? The Bayeux tapestry, which tells the story of the Norman conquest of England, contains a curious image of a man raising a sword towards a bear. New research involving archaeological analysis of bear bones and archival records from my […]