Science
-
Time flies – except when it starts to crawl
What is time? Some people have found the weeks of lockdown passing incredibly quickly; for others, every day has been agonisingly slow – suggesting that we trust too much in clocks.
-
Send in the troops – there’s trouble on Mars
Is space the next war zone? As the superpowers step up their competing exploration programmes, experts worry that future conflicts could be decided outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
-
Science in the dock for ‘biggest failure’
Is wisdom truer than science? As a former health secretary accuses the UK of the “biggest failure of scientific advice for a generation”, some are questioning scientific truth itself.
-
Mile-wide asteroid gives Earth a near miss
Are asteroids our biggest threat? Several giant space missiles passed us by recently – and scientists are coming up with amazing plans to protect the planet from intergalactic impact.
-
Animals understand life better than humans
Is it okay to be wilfully ignorant? A new study of the brain shows that it is programmed to ignore upsetting and inconvenient truths, leaving human beings living in a “reality bubble”.
-
First baby bison born in the wild since 1876
Should this be the biggest news story of the day? These mighty beasts were driven to near-extinction 200 years ago. Conservationists are celebrating the birth as a historic turning point.
-
Breaking news! Humans are basically good
Are people at their best in a crisis? Dutch historian Rutger Bregman thinks so, and he believes we have a persistent habit of ignoring the evidence that human nature is fundamentally good.
-
US military confirms UFOs are known unknowns
Should we embrace the unknown? After years of secrecy, the US government has released astonishing videos of UFOs, admitting it still doesn’t know if Earth has been visited by aliens.
-
Climate emergency is deeper crisis than virus
Is the coronavirus making us forget the deeper climate emergency? There has never been a better opportunity to change things for the good of the planet – but many fear we will waste it.
-
Germany: England’s spot-kick curse is a myth
Do we focus too much on the negative? For 30 years, England’s national football team has been losing penalty shootouts. But new research shows English players are far better than we think.
-
Stunning new image marks Hubble’s 30th birthday
Should learning about space make us feel calmer? The world’s most famous telescope shows us the true scale of the Universe. Some people think this is comforting; others find it terrifying.
-
Now you can help see into the mind of God
Is this the path to a fundamental theory of physics? The computer scientist Stephen Wolfram has unveiled an ambitious new project: crowd-sourcing an all-encompassing theory of everything.
-
The niggling question that just won’t go away
Could Covid-19 have been man-made and escaped from a lab in Wuhan? The overwhelming majority of serious scientists are pouring scorn on the notion. But the argument is still very much alive.
-
Now for the final round – fingers on buzzers!
Do quiz shows really test intelligence? We love watching them and trying to beat contestants to the right answer – but experts say there is much more to winning than being a mere brain box.
-
We are what we eat – and what we mistreat
Did our cruel treatment of animals lead to the coronavirus? Experts tell us that the conditions leading to new infectious diseases are the same ones that inflict horrific harms on animals.