Society
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‘Hi, honey – your dinner’s in the test tube’
Should we welcome laboratory-grown meat? Its advocates say it will help the environment and save animals from needless suffering. But first, producers have to overcome the “yuck factor”.
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The monoliths from outer space (or maybe not)
Do we Earthlings NEED to believe in aliens? The appearance of strange monoliths in the Utah desert and Romania has fuelled speculation that creatures from another world want to make contact.
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Reboot Santa! Christmas rebels call for change
Is it time to rethink Christmas? The festival evolves gradually every year as new traditions are adopted – and now some argue it has changed so much that it needs to be reinvented.
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BBC names world’s most inspiring women
Is gender equality ever going to happen? The BBC has announced its annual list of 100 amazing women. But a UN report finds that women everywhere are still treated much worse than men.
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Christmas saved but many ask if it’s worth it
Do people really want a lockdown break? The UK is to announce a five-day Christmas amnesty tomorrow. Many other governments plan similar moves. But will they live to regret the consequences?
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Female prodigies fuel the great chess boom
Is this the next big thing in sport? The Queen’s Gambit is adding glamour to a skill with a geeky reputation – and young women are flocking to a game that once was the preserve of men.
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From anti-racist protester to accidental hero
Can a chance photo change society? Patrick Hutchinson became a public figure this summer after he rescued a man at a Black Lives Matter march. Now, he is using his fame to fight inequality.
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Lockdown loneliness reaches record levels
Is it the leprosy of our times? The latest statistics show that loneliness is soaring to unprecedented levels. To make matters worse there is a powerful taboo around admitting it in public.
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This pigeon cost the same as 5 Rolls Royces
Do we value the wrong things? A single pigeon has just been sold at auction for £1.5m. The buyers valued it as much as five new Rolls Royce cars. Were they mad? Or very intelligent indeed?
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Prince Charles blistering attack on The Crown
Has Netflix gone too far? The new series of The Crown, depicting the Prince of Wales’s troubled first marriage, has been widely criticised, and he himself is said to be furious about it.
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‘Truth decay’ ripping us apart warns Obama
Is truth REALLY decaying? Barack Obama argues that without a universal idea of truth, society cannot function. Others argue that truth is simply getting more complex – and more interesting!
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Collins declares word of the year: ‘Lockdown’
Can a single word sum up a year? Collins Dictionary has declared that “lockdown” is the most significant word of 2020 – beating ”TikToker”, “Megxit“, “mukbang” and “BLM” to top the rankings.
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Playing for laughs: how humour made us human
Is laughter a matter of survival? A new theory suggests that a good sense of humour might be a sign of intelligence, making us more desirable mates and giving us an evolutionary advantage.
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‘Historically she is more important than Joe’
Will Kamala Harris become president? She is set to be the first female vice-president and first black person in the post. And at 56, she is number two to a man who is 78 in just eleven days.
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The unknown soldier remembered 100 years on
Should we embrace the unknown? Memorials to unnamed soldiers affect us on a deep psychological level, but there are also philosophical reasons to accept the unknown and welcome uncertainty.