Science (Page 218)

The Ouija board was first developed in 1890. Couperfield/ Shutterstock Despite being around for more than 100 years, Ouija boards (a wooden board covered with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9 and the words “yes”, “no” and “goodbye”) continue to be a popular activity – especially around Halloween.Continue Reading

Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock Nearly three years since SARS-CoV-2 first emerged, we’re still not certain where the virus behind COVID-19 came from. The location of the initial outbreak close to the Wuhan Institute of Virology drew suspicion that it may have been a lab leak. But scientists largely came out in favourContinue Reading

Juliya Shangarey/Shutterstock Why are snails’ trails shiny? – Liliana, aged eight, Dublin, Ireland Snails produce a lot of slime, and it is incredibly useful to them. Snail slime is made of a mixture of substances. It is mostly water mixed with proteins and some carbohydrates and minerals, formed into aContinue Reading

Legendrea loyezae, a very rare ciliate that lives in oxygen-free sediments of lakes James Weiss, Author provided You are more likely to take a trip to the Moon than to see a microbe called Legendrea loyezae under a microscope. Nasa’s Apollo programme has sent a total of 24 people toContinue Reading

Brion Gysin and William Burroughs with the Dreamachine, 1972. Charles Gatewood, Author provided For millennia, people have used mind-altering techniques to achieve different states of consciousness, envision spiritual figures, connect with nature, or simply for the fun of it. Psychedelic substances, in particular, have a long and controversial history. ButContinue Reading

Air fryers are becoming more popular Twinsterphoto/Shutterstock If you look carefully at the energy vampires in any house, there’s one common denominator: heat. This means cooking can be among your biggest costs, along with electric heaters and warming water for washing and radiators. So what are the most effective thingsContinue Reading

An artist's impression of planet Gliese 667 Cc at sunset. ESO/L. Calçada, CC BY The study of exoplanets, worlds which orbit stars other than our sun, is currently being transformed by the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We will shortly gain our first insight into conditions on rocky, potentiallyContinue Reading

Shutterstock We all have to make hard decisions from time to time. The hardest of my life was whether or not to change research fields after my PhD, from fundamental physics to climate physics. I had job offers that could have taken me in either direction – one to joinContinue Reading