Cairo’s City of the Dead is more than a cemetery – it’s a living neighbourhood at risk
On religious festival mornings, Egyptians gather among tombs in Cairo’s City of the Dead, a four-mile medieval necropolis at the foot of the Mokattam Hills. They’re upholding a longstanding tradition of remembrance and honouring their deceased loved ones. Though you might expect this ceremony to be marked with silence, the necropolis’s narrow alleys are filled […]
Scientists make Parkinson’s drug from plastic in world first
Photka/Shutterstock.com It’s easy to see discarded plastic as nothing more than waste. Much of it ends up in landfill, breaking down into microplastics that seep into water supplies and threaten the environment, and potentially human health. But what if the same plastic waste could instead be transformed into life-saving medicines? In a recent study published […]
More joy, less juggle? Why workplaces should get on board with the value of care
zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock The core premise of feminism is this: women can do anything. And yes, these days in developed economies, women without children earn about the same as men. The problem is not the opportunities available to them. It’s the opportunities that disappear as women become mothers. This disconnect between paid work and care work is […]
Man convicted of causing his wife’s suicide – why this is a landmark moment for abuse victims
tonkid/shutterstock Kimberly Milne was 28 when she climbed over the barrier of a motorway bridge and jumped to her death. That night, witnesses saw her cowering from her husband, Lee Milne, in a retail park in Dundee, as he trapped her against a wall. CCTV footage showed her trying to get away while he shouted, […]
Could dark matter be made of black holes from a different universe?
A simulation of the ‘cosmic web’, the vast network of threads and filaments that extends throughout the Universe. Dark matter density is represented by the blue-purple colours on the left. Gas density is represented by the orange-red colours on the right. Esa New research suggests that relic black holes from before the big bang may […]
Viktor Orbán’s election loss shows the limits of his propaganda machine
Hungarian voters have overwhelmingly rejected the 16-year rule of authoritarian strongman Viktor Orbán, electing his one-time political ally, Péter Magyar, to replace him. Magyar’s Tisza party has secured a two-thirds majority in parliament and therefore a supermajority. This will allow the new government to roll back some of the illiberal measures introduced Orbán governments over […]
Jane Austen in pictures: two graphic biographies bring the novelist’s life to the page
To coincide with the 250th anniversary of her birth, last year saw the publication of two graphic biographies of Jane Austen. These books take different approaches to the novelist’s life. The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography, by Janine Barchas and Isabel Greenberg, is a slim volume in a cartoony style that begins […]
‘Protected’ seagrass meadows aren’t necessarily healthy – because pollution doesn’t stop at the shoreline
_Zostera marina_ or common eelgrass is a type of seagrass. Ben Jones / Ocean Image Bank, CC BY-NC-ND I spent last summer wading through seagrass meadows across Northern Ireland, from the sheltered waters of Strangford Lough to the exposed coast at Waterfoot Bay. I was collecting seagrass leaves and testing them for nitrogen pollution. Every […]
What is the chance of a message in a bottle being found?
Jenny Sturm/Shutterstock Recently, a cheerful 100-year-old message in a bottle was found on the south-west coast of Australia. In it, a world war one soldier proclaimed to be “as happy as Larry”. If you’re a betting person, you probably wouldn’t expect great odds of this happening. A bottle cast into the ocean could end up […]
Gamblers don’t understand ‘free bets’ – and the costs can be huge
Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock “Welcome bonus: get 150% up to £150 on your first deposit”. It’s the kind of offer that greets anyone who visits a British online betting site. What it doesn’t say is that if you decide to spend £50 on this offer, you’d need to stake an additional £750 of your own money before any […]