Gene editing revolutionised science. PopTika/Shutterstock It is the most exciting time in genetics since the discovery of DNA in 1953. This is mainly due to scientific breakthroughs including the ability to change DNA through a process called gene editing. The potential for this technology is astonishing – from treating geneticContinue Reading
Andrey Prokhorov/Shutterstock Humans are naturally afraid of the dark. We sometimes imagine monsters under the bed and walk faster down unlit streets at night. To conquer our fears, we may leave a night light on to scare away the monsters and a light over the porch to deter break-ins. Yet,Continue Reading
What is your love language? NDAB Creativity/Shutterstock If you’ve ever flipped through the pages of a women’s lifestyle magazine, there’s a good chance you’ve stumbled onto a quiz promising to answer the question “what is your love language?”. Or if social media is more your speed, there’s no shortage ofContinue Reading
The earthquakes that struck in Turkey and Syria in the early hours of February 6 have led to terrible destruction on a scale not seen in Europe for many decades. At the time of writing, the death toll has risen beyond 11,000 people and will continue to rise over theContinue Reading
Communal bathing can get pretty disgusting. monic zrivoic/Shutterstock For many centuries we have bathed in communal waters. Sometimes for cleanliness but more often for pleasure. Indeed, in ancient Greece, baths were taken in freshwater, or sometimes the sea – which was thought of as a sacred place dedicated to localContinue Reading
Virgin Orbit is launching satellites using a rocket slung under the wing of an aircraft. Virgin Orbit, Author provided Having the capability to launch satellites from UK soil has been a long time coming. The recent attempted launch from Cornwall did not succeed, despite high hopes. Nevertheless, it marks anContinue Reading
Pexels/ajay donga It’s one thing to know what makes people happy, but quite another to live a happy life oneself. I didn’t get a true taste of happiness until I quit my decade-long career as a happiness academic, packed all I’d need for many months onto a bicycle, and beganContinue Reading
Audacious plans to resurrect the long-extinct bird could be lucrative. But the moonshot raises thorny philosophical questions.Continue Reading
Macronatura.es/Shutterstock You lift a stone and staring up at you is a little insect with its tail curled and pincers ready to inflict who knows what. Then you see its attendants – tiny white insects, huddled underneath. Should you drop the stone and quash them, or leave them be? WhatContinue Reading
The giant bird Genyornis went extinct in Australia around 50,000 years ago. Peter Trusler, Author provided It’s a long-running Australian detective story. From the 1980s onwards, researchers found eggshell fragments, and on rare occasions whole eggs, exposed in eroding sand dunes within the country’s arid zone (which covers most ofContinue Reading
