Get into stargazing this autumn – a beginner’s guide
AstroStar/Shutterstock Autumn can feel bittersweet. The nights are drawing in quickly, and spending time outdoors becomes less appealing. For stargazers, however, the longer nights bring more opportunities to explore the sky. Read more: Day and night aren’t equal length on an equinox – here’s why But where to start? Perhaps the August 2026 solar eclipse […]
Tired, irritable and craving carbs? Why darker days affect our bodies and brains
As the days shorten, many people have fewer opportunities to spend time outdoors in natural daylight, which helps regulate our internal body clocks. kle555/Shutterstock When the clocks go back in October, millions of Britons welcome an extra hour in bed. But by the evening, with darkness arriving before many people finish work, that small luxury […]
Daylight saving was meant to save energy. Do we still need it in the age of LEDs?
PNW Park Ranger / shutterstock When the clocks go back each October, we gain an hour of sleep and lose an hour of evening daylight. The practice of moving the clocks forward in spring was introduced partly to save energy, by making better use of daylight at the end of the day so there would […]
Robert Eggers’s Werwulf: the real history of wolves and werewolves in medieval England
Robert Eggers’s historical folk horror Werwulf will be in cinemas this winter. It’s set in 1305, when wolves still roamed parts of England. As they vanished from English shores due to sustained hunting, however, the werewolf myth moved abroad. The creature changed from a pitiable victim into a diabolical killer, before being rediscovered and reinvented […]
‘We changed the system’: how Serbian students ended Alexander Vučić’s 12 years in power
Serbia’s student-led political movement has secured a historic election victory. Preliminary results suggest the so-called Student List has won 141 of the 250 seats in parliament, with the ruling Serbian Progressive Party taking 104. The result brings the 12-year rule of Alexander Vučić to an end. The Student List’s story is remarkable. It has no […]
Five ways to look after yourself as winter approaches
It’s important to make time for friends and loved ones. Luis Rojas Estudio/ Shutterstock When the clocks “fall back” in the autumn, it signals the start of the winter months. And, for many, this time change also signals the start of a difficult period – where the cold weather and long nights wear on their […]
Where did bats come from? New research points to Europe
Memo Ossa/Shutterstock For decades scientists have argued about where bats originated. A recently published study in the journal Nature offers new evidence to address that question. This new international study combining DNA and fossils supports Europe as bats’ likely birthplace. The problem thus far has been that, unlike birds, which have a superb fossil record […]
Victorian spiritualism capitalised on the desire to transcend death to create new ways of making money
Death has never entirely stopped the living from trying to continue a conversation with their loved ones. Today, AI-powered deathbots and a growing range of “grief tech” bring to market several ways that consumers can recreate the voices of the deceased. They open new commercial opportunities and experiences alongside uncomfortable questions about whether grief should […]
Working-class academics are still struggling to fit in at university
DedMityay/Shutterstock Higher education is not a neutral space. It is built on longstanding histories of classism, elitism and exclusion. Universities in the UK were not designed for the working class, just as they were not designed for many other under-represented and marginalised groups, such as women, people of the global ethnic majority and people with […]
18 million people living in poverty depend on underwater meadows for food and income – but these vital habitats are under threat
Women collect fish and invertebrates from shallow seagrass next to their village in Mozambique. Benjamin Jones/Project Seagrass, CC BY At least 18 million people living in poverty across the Indo-Pacific fish in seagrass meadows, while around 6.5 million rely on them as their only fishing grounds. For these communities, the underwater habitats are not simply […]