Otodus megalodon, the biggest shark of all time, has long captured the imaginations of palaeontologists and the public alike. Scientific fascination spawns from the sheer enormity of their fossilised teeth. As big as human hands and serrated like kitchen knives, they were used for cutting down whales unlucky enough toContinue Reading
Prostock-studio/Shutterstock Every individual’s experience of pain is unique – but that makes it harder to treat. The experience of pain remains impenetrable to scientists because it is so variable. So researchers and clinicians still rely on subjective ratings, such as asking patients to rate their pain on a scale ofContinue Reading
Starling murmurations form as daylight fades over their roosting sites. Shutterstock / Albert Beukhof The word swarm often carries negative connotations – think biblical plagues of locusts or high streets full of last-minute shoppers during the Christmas rush. However, swarming is essential for the survival of many animal collectives. AndContinue Reading
Bjoern Wylezich / Shutterstock “A diamond is forever.” That iconic slogan, coined for a highly successful advertising campaign in the 1940s, sold the gemstones as a symbol of eternal commitment and unity. But our new research, carried out by researchers in a variety of countries and published in Nature, suggestsContinue Reading
Shift Drive / Shutterstock Hiring is normally featured as a prime example for algorithmic bias. This is where a tendency to favour some groups over others becomes accidentally fixed in an AI system designed to perform a specific task. There are countless stories about this. Perhaps the best known exampleContinue Reading
AstroStar/Shutterstock Humans have a knack for sharing intimate moments in unlikely places, as membership of the mile-high club demonstrates. So there is a significant chance that the launch of the space tourism sector may be swiftly followed by the first sex in space. But having researched the issue, my colleaguesContinue Reading
Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock Horizon Europe is the largest and richest funding programme for scientific research in the world. Run by the European Union (EU), it has a budget of €95.5 billion (£83 billion) spread over seven years – from 2021 to 2027. Until 2020, the UK was a full memberContinue Reading
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock As most parents of teenagers are acutely aware, there comes a time when children start prioritising their friends over their parents. While young children rely on their parents for social interactions and influences, there’s a notable switch during adolescence, where the influence from peers and friends becomesContinue Reading
DorSteffen/Shutterstock There are a number of classic experiments and theories that every psychology student learns about, but more recent research has questioned their findings so that psychologists today are reevaluating human nature. One example is Philip Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford prison experiment, in which 24 participants were randomly separated into groupsContinue Reading
We like to think of sea otters as cute but they can be aggressive. rbrown10/Shutterstock Surfers often talk about how the sport helps them reconnect with nature, but a recent episode involving an otter with a love for surfboards shows just how brittle our love for wildlife really is. TheContinue Reading
