I'm Friday / Shutterstock Disinformation, sharing false information to deceive and mislead others, can take many forms. From edited “deepfake” videos made on smartphones to vast foreign-led information operations, politics and elections show how varied disinformation can be. Hailed as “the year of elections”, with the majority of the world’sContinue Reading
A deal was signed between San Diego Zoo and China’s Wildlife Conservation Association in February 2024 that paved the way for Chinese giant pandas to return to the US by the end of the summer. But this is far more than just a deal between two zoos. It suggests aContinue Reading
Unlike humans, many animals still have tails. vblinov/Shutterstock Put the word “evolution” into Google images and the results are largely variations on one theme: Ralph Zallinger’s illustration, March of Progress. Running left to right, we see a chimp-like knuckle walker gradually becoming taller and standing erect. Implicit in such imagesContinue Reading
Otter populations crashed in Britain around the 1960s from the lethal effects of chemical pollution in rivers and lakes – or so we thought. Our research has looked more closely at what happened to otters in Britain over the last 800 years and has revealed a more complex picture. SinceContinue Reading
SpeedKingz/Shutterstock Many people object to intelligence tests. Some say IQ test scores are too often abused. They says it’s unfair that when children “fail” these tests it can mean they receive a worse secondary education than their more successful peers – sentencing them to a lifetime of disadvantage. Some objectContinue Reading
Jacob Lund / Shutterstock For millions of people, smartwatches aren’t just a piece of technology. They can use them to take control of their health in ways never thought possible. As you go on your morning run, a smartwatch can monitor the rhythmic pounding of your feet and your heart’sContinue Reading
Merlin74 / Shutterstock A new study published in Nature Astronomy describes the most luminous object ever observed by astronomers. It is a black hole with a mass of 17 billion Suns, swallowing a greater amount of mass than the Sun every single day. It has been known about for severalContinue Reading
Across large parts of the UK, the native red squirrel has been replaced by the grey squirrel, a North American species. As well as endangering reds, grey squirrels pose a threat to our woodlands because of the damage they cause to trees. New research from my colleagues and I comparedContinue Reading
NicoElNino / Shutterstock In a week where national security has taken centre stage in Washington, the White House confirmed on Thursday that it had evidence that Russia was developing a space-based nuclear anti satellite weapon. John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson, informed reporters that the White House believe Russia’sContinue Reading
The Tridentinosaurus counterfeit Valentina Rossi, CC BY-NC-ND Fake fossils are among us, passing almost undetected under the eye of experts all over the world. This is a serious problem – counterfeited specimens can mislead palaeontologists into studying an ancient past that never existed. In a new study, my colleagues andContinue Reading
