The annual display peaks in the early hours of Tuesday 13 August. Peak rates can reach one meteor every minuteOne astronomical event dominates all others this week. It is the annual Perseids meteor shower. This is a reliable meteor shower that can reach peak rates of one meteor every minute. The meteors are dust grains that were ejected as part of the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the...
Curbing meat and dairy consumption is critical to tackling global heating. But the issue must not be reduced to solely a question of personal choicesIt’s easy to despair. The scale of the problems we face looms as large as the shadows cast by unpalatable leaders. What stirs some into action for the first time leaves others feeling simply overwhelmed. What can any one person do?When the UN’s...
A hot room won’t usually kill you, but a hot planet will. If you feel sweaty, just imagine how your grandchildren are going to feel We think of air conditioning as a “first world” luxury, but it’s really more of an American one. In Europe, fewer than 5% of households have air conditioning, according to the International Energy Agency, and even in hot regions like Africa, Latin America and...
Porridge, loaves and sauces Egyptians and Romans consumed have become today’s cookbook crazeDuring a 1954 BBC documentary about Tollund Man, the mysterious body of a hanged man discovered in a peat bog in Denmark, the noted archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler ate a reconstruction of the 2,000-year-old’s last meal. After tasting the porridge of barley, linseed and mustard seeds, he dabbed at his...
A chimera is an organism with genetic material from two or more sources. Experiments in the field may save lives but are ethically controversialLast week, researchers led by Spanish scientist Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte announced they had created the first human-monkey chimera embryos in China. The purpose of the experiment is to investigate ways of using animals to grow human organs for...
Scientific advances that prolong fertility can only be a benefit to many would-be mothersLet us imagine for a moment that we lived in a world where male fertility dropped off a cliff by the time men hit their mid 40s, leaving a group of men who wanted to have children but couldn’t. When would science have produced a fix?I am going to hazard a guess that it would have been quite some time ago....
As studies of kinship show, many people were glad to escape the strains of close-knit livingIn the countdown to a possible no-deal exit from the EU, there are some who cling to an optimistic narrative that our community spirit will get us through. Indeed, recent experiences in Whaley Bridge lend some support to the idea that in a crisis community is revealed. The irony is that, in part, the whole...