Category: Technology

Farming just one kind of crop in a field at a time, and using a lot of chemicals, poses a risk to both people and nature. This simplified intensive agriculture often goes hand in hand with increased greenhouse gas emissions, land and water degradation, and loss of biodiversity. There’s another way to farm: increasing the […]

Sometimes when I read the newspapers, I think that going to a restaurant and leaving without paying has become something of an epidemic. My research into lying has taught me that the psychology behind acts of deception is often deeply complex. Let me start with a confession. I was guilty of dine and dash a […]

If a distressed stranger knocked on your door asking to use your phone, would you oblige? How about lending them a fiver for the bus, if they assured you they’d return and pay you back? In today’s fractured world, trust seems elusive and divisions run deep. A lot of people find it hard to trust […]

The cycling infrastructure in the Netherlands is fantastic, and cyclists in my hometown of Utrecht would have been the happiest in the world if it wasn’t for one thing: pigeons. One moment you’re pedalling in the sun with a cool breeze in your face, and the next you’re breaking and swerving. A pigeon casually strolled […]

Many more people around the world than normal were recently able to see the northern and southern lights overhead with the naked eye. This unusual event was triggered by a very strong solar storm, which affected the movement of the Earth’s magnetic field. The Sun is reaching the maximum point of activity in an 11-year […]

Beneath the roar of gunfire and the chaos of D-day, an unlikely hero played a vital role — wetland science. Often overlooked amid military strategies and troop movements, the study of mud proved critical to the success of the largest amphibious invasion in history. Much has been written about the events of June 6 1944 […]

Over the past decade, a new form of scepticism about human activities in space has emerged. It seems to be based exclusively in the western world, and centred around the idea that increasingly ambitious space plans will damage humanity and neglect the Earth. In China, things are different, but this will likely change eventually. Our […]

We weren’t the first to lay eyes on the engraving since it was carved into the hillside any number of centuries or millennia ago, not by a long shot. The Venezuelan archaeologist José Maria Cruxent even recorded it in his diaries in the 1940s – and there were certainly visitors before him. The site of […]

How do people successfully interact with those who are completely different from them? And can these differences create social barriers? Social scientists are struggling with these questions because the mental processes underlying social interactions are not well understood. One recent concept that has become increasingly popular is the “double-empathy problem”. This draws on research looking […]