We have only sent people to the Moon six times so far. Design Projects/Shutterstock Why can’t we put a space station on the Moon? – Ronak, aged 17, Jaipur, India A space station on the Moon could be very useful. It would provide future space missions with a stopping pointContinue Reading
Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock If someone asked you to read this text aloud in a French accent or an Italian one, you would likely understand what that means and be able to produce some version of it, even if it’s not entirely accurate (assuming you’re not a native French or ItalianContinue Reading
SeventyFour/Shutterstock The term “binge-watch” was a contender for the Oxford English Dictionary’s 2013 word of the year. Although it didn’t win (“selfie” ultimately took the crown), this pointed to the rise of what was becoming a popular activity of watching multiple episodes of a TV show in a single sitting.Continue Reading
Each year the Home Office publishes data on stop and search from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. The latest figures for the year ending March 2021 reveal a familiar pattern: stop and search disproportionately affects black people and targets drugs, not serious violence. The figures come asContinue Reading
Nations around the world made a vital climate crisis declaration to save forests within the next decade. Can they actually do it?Continue Reading
Dawid A. Iurino for THOR, Author provided A collection of fossil footprints at Laetoli in Northern Tanzania, preserved in volcanic ash and dated to 3.66 million years ago, are still yielding surprises almost 45 years after their discovery. Based on a re-analysis of fossil footprints from one of Laetoli’s sites,Continue Reading
When times are uncertain, we can fail to be flexible. jefftakespics2/Shutterstock We make decisions every day, many of which are so straightforward that we hardly notice we are making them. But we tend to struggle when faced with decisions that have uncertain outcomes, such as during the pandemic. Cognitive scientistsContinue Reading
Acoustic waves can detect all kinds of explosions and volcanic activity, but it’s hard to place sensors at sea—unless you’ve got a bird with a backpack.Continue Reading
Centenarian buddies in Sardinia. Sabino Parente/Shutterstock A 35-year-old man only has a 1.5% chance of dying in the next ten years. But the same man at 75 has a 45% chance of dying before he reaches 85. Clearly, ageing is bad for our health. On the bright side, we haveContinue Reading
Lachlan Ross / pexels , CC BY-SA Humans have amazing fingertips. They are sensitive and can be moved over objects to feel its softness, texture, size and shape. These movements are both complex, and “task-specific”. This means that you adopt different movements depending on what you want to feel aboutContinue Reading