Category: Technology

Have you been to the beach this summer? I took my daughter there the other day and got her a pasty for lunch. She was happily munching it while staring out to sea, back turned to the café where we bought the pasty. Suddenly, there was a flapping of wings behind us and something swooping […]

Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore must have heaved a sigh of relief when they opened the hatch and floated into the International Space Station (ISS) on June 6 2024. It was the first time the Starliner spacecraft they arrived on had ever carried people. Built by aerospace manufacturing giant Boeing, Starliner had become the […]

We all imitate one another in conversation. We use similar gestures, our accents converge, our tones of voice align, and we mirror each other’s facial expressions. But, as my team’s recent study showed, subtle differences in the way we mirror each other can reveal a lot about our identities and even divides between classes. Specifically, […]

In a new study, we have sequenced DNA from a Christian community in medieval Spain that lived in artificial caves carved into a rocky outcrop. This is one of several medieval cave communities known to have lived on the Iberian peninsula – which includes both Portugal and Spain. Why these groups favoured caves over more […]

As we grieve the loss of a pet, we may not be the only ones feeling the pain. Research is showing that cats who are left behind when another animal in their home dies could be mourning along with us. Grief is a well-documented human response to loss – but its roots may be far […]

The African rail (Rallus caerulescens) is a handsome bird, with a blueish breast, red legs, eyes and bill, prominent barring on the flanks, chestnut upper parts, and long toes. It also has a characteristic trilling call. This wetland dweller is only found in sub-Saharan Africa, with a concentration in South Africa’s Western Cape province. The […]

Let’s say you are a co-founder of a thriving Israeli start-up, employing 1,200 people. A global tech giant whose stock is worth $2 trillion (four times Israel’s GDP) offers to acquire you. It agrees to pay a substantial premium above your existing market value – $23 billion, a record, unprecedented price tag for an Israeli […]

Elon Musk recently announced that he was relocating the companies SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter) from their current headquarters in California to Texas. The news has placed a spotlight on the rise in big tech shifting its operations to the Lone Star state, with Austin emerging as a main hub. Known as the “Silicon Hills” […]

I get twitchy about taking holidays at the end of August, because it’s the only time of year when people (and the media) in the UK seem to want to talk about wasps and I have spent my career trying to change people’s minds about these fascinating insects. Typically, the UK wasp hysteria season peaks […]