Category: Technology

We recently updated our privacy policy for the first time since 2022. Most of the changes are clarifications, reorganizations, and improvements in transparency, particularly around how third-party tools that run parts of our site operate. But one change is substantive enough that we want to address it directly. The Change You Should Know About: Opt-In […]

For most of the 20th century, the model of human origins was a tree: with the trunk dividing into branches, and then twigs. Each species of human relative (hominin) was a neat, single branch. As an undergraduate, I was taught that Homo sapiens was one of these branches that emerged in Africa, spread across the […]

Poor accountability, feeble control mechanisms, and insufficient legal frameworks have led to systematic human rights violations in the Americas, with no consistent remedy or reparation to victims. What’s needed is to materialize essential guarantees and measures to combat repeated surveillance abuses in the region. To help build a path for solutions, EFF launches the guide […]

Excavators cut shallow areas in the peatlands as part of a project to develop more wetlands. Adam Johnston, CC BY-SA Thousands of holes are appearing in the Pennine hills, as part of efforts to improve carbon storage by restoring damaged peatland. Peat itself is carbon rich and so as it grows it will help to […]

Six spin-outs, in areas from biomanufacturing in space to environmentally conscious fashion, have progressed during a UKRI Research England pilot. It demonstrated the success of pooling resources by universities sharing Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and expertise. The pilot sought to test whether shared TTOs, a collaborative model for universities, may support universities with smaller research […]

The importance of bees for pollinating wild plants and crops is well known. If we lose the bees, we lose our food. But this is only part of the picture. Bees also support a hidden network of other species, sometimes as mutual partners, sometimes as prey, sometimes as other unwilling victims. Many organisms depend on […]

In the US state park of Robbers Cave, Oklahoma, Carolyn Wood Sherif is standing squinting up at the sun. The two wooden cabins before her rattle with shrieks and cries from excited 11-year-old boys. They have been split into two groups of 11 and encouraged to bond. Over three long, laborious weeks in the summer […]

Heatwaves are a growing global threat to human health, wellbeing and livelihoods. Across 12 major European cities during the summer of 2025, a ten-day period of extreme heat led to 2,300 deaths – 1,500 of them were attributed to climate change amplifying temperatures by 1-4°C. Heatwaves were responsible for nearly half a million global deaths […]

Georgia's entry Circus Mircus during the controversial second semi-final of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest. Michael Doherty/Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-SA The Eurovision Song Contest was founded 70 years ago as a way for Europe, divided after war, to come together by celebrating its music. Every year, several dozen countries across the continent – and, more recently, […]

Sudan lies at the crossroads of Africa and the Middle East. It has played a key role in human demographic movements, reflected in the diversity of its cultures and languages. Although much of the country is arid, the Nile River has long acted as a corridor for trade, facilitating human migration through the region for […]