CATEGORIES

High Marks In Happiness

A course in improving personal well-being has become an Ivy League university’s most popular class of all time—and it’s free. Madeleine Ross decided to put it to the test

The Motherhood Revolution

Of all the changes to sweep the west over the past 400 years, perhaps none have had a greater impact on women’s lives than the fall in family sizes. Sarah Knott tells the story of the great fertility decline, from the large broods of 17th-century America to the one-children families of postwar London

Monster Movers

Think moving house is difficult? Take a look at the gargantuan machines that are needed to move rockets, wind turbines, Antarctic bases and even entire buildings

Fossil Of First Known Perching Bird Found

Specimen holds clues to the origin of more than half of current bird species.

Exploring Ethics

Dr Deborah Bowman spent more than 20 years researching medical ethics, but a 2017 breast cancer diagnosis made her reconsider everything

Aleks Krotoski On … Autoreply Option Predictive Systems Are Biased

There is an old idea in the Highlands of Scotland that the 12, 13 and 14 of February are ‘borrowed’ from January.

“THIS YEAR, I MIGHT GO VEGAN…”

This year I am contemplating giving veganism a go. At least temporarily. And perhaps just for a couple of weeks.

Tango In Patagonia

On one remote windswept lakes near the tip of South America, the world’s rarest grebes have been given their own bodyguards

Sea Shells On The Sea Shore

There’s more to limpets than meets the eye. From their remarkable homing instinct to body-slamming defence mechanisms and super-strong teeth, these sea snails are amazing creatures

My Brain Made Me Do It

A growing body of research has found that head injury can make people more prone to criminal behaviour…

Anglo-Saxon Beasts Of Death

For 10th-century warriors, the appearance of wolves, ravens and eagles on the battlefield meant an unlucky few had been chosen to die. Eric Lacey digs into a grisly superstition

Could Neanderthal Mind Reveal What Made Modern Humans A Successful Species?

Scientists are growing ‘mini-brains’ containing Neanderthal genes. Could they reveal what made modern humans such a successful species?

Helen Czerski On...Sand

Why Does Sand Go Dry When You Step On It?

The Battle That Broke The Germans

When the Allies launched an offensive at Amiens 100 years ago this month, they did so with such precision and power that enemy troops were soon surrendering in their thousands. Nick Lloyd describes a battle that shattered German morale, and asks, why is it not more celebrated today?

The Last Word

MICHAEL MOSLEY ON … SCIENTISTS “HOW A PAIR OF MAVERICK SCIENTISTS CHANGED MANY LIVES”

We're All Going On A Summer Holiday

Eighty summers ago, thousands of working-class Britons got their very first tastes of sun, sea and sand, courtesy of the 1938 Holidays with Pay Act. Kathryn Ferry chronicles the fraught birth of a holidaymaking revolution

Have A Laugh

Comedian and mathematician Dara Ó Briain is diving into the invisible science behind everyday life in his second children’s book, Secret Science: The Amazing World Beyond Your Eyes. He chats to HELEN GLENNY

My Life Scientific

This month, anatomist and presenter Alice Roberts talks to Helen Pilcher about her love of skeletons and the lure of Strictly Come Dancing

'The Neurons Have A Completely Different Activity Pattern Before The Movement'

Planned and immediate movements are processed differently by the brain. Dr Benjamin Dann of the German Primate Center explains how it might help humans

Incan Surgeons Were Surprisingly Skilled At Drilling Holes In People's Skulls

Thankfully, trepanation – the act of scraping, cutting, or drilling an opening into a person’s cranium to treat everything from headaches, to seizures, or even supposed demonic possession – is a practice largely confined to the past. But if you were ever in need of such an operation, you could do a lot worse than seeking out an Incan surgeon.

Dolphins Are Phenomenally Good At Using Echolocation, Much Better Than Man-made Devices

Dolphins echolocate with two-part acoustic beams. Dr Josefin Starkhammar of Lund University explains how this could help us improve ultrasound technology.

The Trials Of Writing Modern History

Fallible memories and a surplus of sources mean that the most challenging era for historians to tackle is the one in which we now live.

Invent Everything

In his latest book How To Invent Everything, Canadian computer scientist and comic writer RYAN NORTH takes a look at the 200,000 years of inventions and discoveries that have helped to shape our society and humanity itself. He talks to HELEN GLENNY

Cairo Battleground Of Empires

The city of Cairo is an architectural masterpiece 5,000 years in the making, created by some of humanity’s greatest empire-builders. From the pharaohs to Napoleon, Michael Scott reveals how five civilisations left their mark on Egypt’s teeming capital.

All Summer, I Live And Breathe Swifts

Across the UK, people from all walks of life are coming together to save the swifts. It’s one of the most inspiring stories in conservation today.

'Oh Father, Why Have You Abandoned Me?'

In 1347, chroniclers of the Black Death began reporting incidents of mothers, uncles, brothers and wives deserting their plague-stricken relatives and fleeing for their lives. Samuel Cohn tells the story of a horrifying, yet little known phenomenon: abandonment

Space Is Fast Replacing Land As The Arena For Conflict

Forget the traditional battlegrounds of land, sea and air. Rapid developments in technology and our reliance on satellites for every thing from communication to navigation are pushing conflicts into a new arena: outer space

Karl Marx- The Godfather Of Revolution

5 May 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth. Gregory Claeys reveals how a poverty-stricken dissident became one of the most influential thinkers in the history of the world.

Tricks Of The Mind

Psychologists are starting to figure out why we get false memories, and it turns out that they might even be useful… 

Hawking's Last Hurrah

The world famous physicist and author of A Brief History Of Time is laid to rest alongside Newton and Darwin.