What will AI do for us? Young adults in lower-income countries feel more positive about its potential – new survey
i_am_zews/Shutterstock Young people in low- and middle-income countries appear generally more optimistic about how AI can enhance their work prospects and social lives than their western peers, according to our new survey of people in ten countries in Africa and South Asia. While debates in higher-income countries often focus on job losses, misinformation and mental […]
Why Bonnie from Toy Story 5 resonates with so many neurodivergent families
When Pixar introduced Toy Story audiences to Bonnie, she was simply the little girl who inherited Woody, Buzz and the gang from Andy at the end of Toy Story 3 (2010). But for many autistic families, Bonnie has become something more: a character whose experiences feel surprisingly familiar. Pixar has never described Bonnie as autistic. […]
Why do some foods taste good and others taste horrible?
Gladskikh Tatiana/Shutterstock Have you noticed that something you find absolutely delicious might taste disgusting to someone else? Well nine-year-old Leo from Wigan in the UK wanted to know why that is – and why our taste for certain foods changes? Leo joined our host Eloise to put his question to taste researcher Linda Bartoshuk on […]
Why Pope Leo’s visit to Lampedusa matters for migrants, the church and global politics
As the US celebrated its 250th anniversary, Pope Leo XIV decided instead to visit the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. Closer to Africa geographically than to Italy, the island is known as a place of sbarchi (sea landings) for thousands immigrants and asylum seekers journeying from Africa to Europe, and a place where thousands of others […]
Climate law expert: Europe’s deadly heatwaves belong in court
Maksim Safaniuk/Shutterstock Europe is in the middle of something that no longer feels exceptional. Temperature records have broken across the continent, hitting 40°C and above in Germany, France, Hungary and Spain – and costing hundreds of lives. Where I live in Scandinavia, this kind of temperature is more unusual. Yet Denmark also recently joined the […]
How to create the blackest black ever known – from nature to nanotechnology
Achieving the blackest of blacks has been one of humanity’s enduring challenges. It is a frontier that unites modern nanotechnologists with nature’s ancient colour palette. Black emerged as one of humanity’s first engineered colours, stemming from charcoal and soot used in the prehistoric cave art of Lascaux in southwestern France. For centuries, darkness has been […]
The Vikings were more than bearded marauders but Scandinavia’s national museums continue to project that image
If you visit Scandinavia you are likely to find yourself at an exhibition about Vikings. There are many to choose from. The National History Museum in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, houses a major permanent exhibition on Viking. The Swedish History Museum in Stockholm boasts the largest Viking Age exhibition in the world. And the new Norwegian […]
Nato summit will reveal how alliance plans to manage European security as US cuts back its support
Two massive Russian attacks on Kyiv in less than a week, renewed Iranian threats in the Strait of Hormuz, and a security crackdown in Turkey are just three of the immediate issues shaping the context of the Nato summit in Ankara on July 7-8. While Ukraine and Iran will be on Nato’s agenda, the authoritarian […]
UK ‘only’ contributes 1% global emissions – but alongside many other countries, that all adds up
Scharfsinn/Shutterstock The UK represented just 0.81% of global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels and industry in 2024. That’s a small proportion of the global total, so perhaps it’s easy to suggest that the responsibility to cut emissions should instead lie with bigger emitters like China, the US and India. But with many countries contributing the […]
In our deep oceans, evolution is supercharged – this diversity of life could help unlock humanity’s greatest challenges
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents like these in the mid-Atlantic Ocean are natural laboratories for studying life in extreme conditions. Gallwis/Shutterstock Far beneath the surface of the ocean lies the largest and least explored habitat on Earth. The deep sea is cold, dark, highly pressurised – and home to a huge amount of undiscovered life. The first […]