How storytelling can help articulate emotions that evolve as the climate changes
Studio Romantic/Shutterstock As the smell of smoke and burning drifts around my neighbourhood from wildfires in nearby north Wales and Manchester, I worry that the consequences of this climate crisis are getting closer. The decline of our planet is no longer just a physical threat; it is a mental health emergency. The Climate Cares Centre […]
Since Gisèle Pelicot, more global networks of drug-facilitated rape have been revealed – here’s what that tells us
Stock-Asso/Shutterstock When the world learned about the horrors inflicted upon Gisèle Pelicot by her husband and his fellow rapists in 2024, it was presented as a shocking anomaly. I participated in a documentary about the case, and during filming was asked: “Could this happen again?”. My response was: “It already is, and is an extension […]
Cracking the code: can AI help us decipher ancient languages?
Every ancient language that has ever been deciphered needed an anchor. Usually that’s a bilingual text, like the Rosetta Stone, or a known relative to compare it to. Linear A, the writing system of the Bronze Age Minoan civilisation on the Greek island of Crete, has neither. Linear A is described as a “language isolate” […]
The case for having an imperfect memory – a psychologist explains
365daysStudios/Shutterstock Think back to your time at school. Were you hard-working, popular, anxious? And what exam grades did you get? Now, imagine someone pulls out your school reports from that time. How closely would they match the results you just brought to mind? If your recollections match exactly, you might congratulate yourself on having an […]
Visible mending: why showing off repairs is better than hiding them
lynea/Shutterstock Fast fashion is inexpensive, so when clothes become worn or damaged, replacing them often seems easier than repairing them. Clothes are often worn just seven to ten times before they are thrown away. And 92 million tonnes of textile waste is burnt or ends up in landfill every year. Repairing clothes can be one […]
What we’ve learned from Andy Burnham’s first week as prime minister
The changing of prime ministers, rather than marking epochs, has become rather commonplace. For the politically minded, that doesn’t mean that each is without the hovering of Tony Blair’s “hand of history”. A new premiership may last 49 days, or ten years. But a truly remarkable set of circumstances would be needed for Andy Burnham’s […]
What repeated blows to the head in sport may mean for dementia risk
England rugby players Tom Curry and Manu Tuilagi accidentally collide during a World Cup match against South Africa in Paris, October 2023. Victor Velter/Shutterstock There is now widespread evidence that years of heading, tackling and collisions in football and rugby could increase the risk of dementia and other neurological diseases. The latest – preliminary research […]
A 1952 Pan Am plane crash transformed passenger safety procedures – a former airline pilot explains how
On Good Friday, April 11 1952, a Pan American Douglas DC-4 named Clipper Endeavor took off from San Juan in Puerto Rico, bound for New York. On board were 64 passengers including six infants, plus five crew. The flight lasted less than nine minutes before two engines lost power. Unable to make it back to […]
A sweary boss might make you work harder (or want to quit)
Some people love to swear. In the workplace, some of those people might be in charge. You may have worked with one (or be one) yourself. The team leader who likes to pepper a pep talk with spicy language, or the manager who uses swear words to express themselves in the clearest possible terms. How […]
Force of Nature shows how extreme weather pushes wildlife to its limits
A chimpanzee digging for water in a dried-up Senegalese riverbed. A colony of 40,000 flamingos scattered by a hurricane. A polar bear hunting on ice that is disappearing beneath its feet. These are not scenes from some distant climate-altered future. They are happening right now. And this year they are coming to Sunday night television. […]