By Mark Williams, Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Leicester
Jan Zalasiewicz, Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Leicester
The age of humans is increasingly an age of sameness. Across the planet, distinctive plants and animals are disappearing, replaced by species that are lucky enough to thrive alongside humans and travel with us easily. Some scientists have a word for this reshuffling of life: the Homogenocene.
Evidence for it is found in the world’s museums. Storerooms are full of animals that no longer walk among us, pickled in spirit-filled jars: coiled snakes, bloated fish, frogs, birds. Each extinct species marks the…
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By Simon Haslett, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Physical Geography, Bath Spa University; Swansea University
Four centuries on, scientists are still debating whether the catastrophic flood of 1607 was driven by a storm surge or a tsunami.
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By Judith Roberts, Lecturer in Psychology, Aberystwyth University
Mindfulness is usually taught through stillness and silence. But for some, full presence is easier to achieve in movement, and even in risk.
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By Stephan Blum, Research Associate, Institute for Prehistory and Early History and Medieval Archaeology, University of Tübingen
Imagine a city that thrived for thousands of years, its streets alive with workshops, markets and the laughter of children, yet that is remembered for a single night of fire. That city is Troy.
Long before Homer’s epics immortalised its fall, Troy was a place of everyday life. Potters shaped jars and bowls destined to travel far beyond the settlement itself, moving through wide horizons of exchange and connection.
Bronze tools rang in busy workshops. Traders called across the marketplace and children…
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By Andrew Scott, Emeritus Professor of Geology, Royal Holloway, University of London
Please can I ask how old is fire on earth, not tamed by people but since when has there been fire and flames on the planet.
Samuel, 5, London
You ask a very interesting question. For many years, scientists assumed that fire and humans were so connected that few of them gave any thought to what happened to fire before humans evolved.
Even now, after many years of research, you won’t find much…
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By Mehr Mumtaz, PhD Candidate in Sociology, The Ohio State University
In January 2025, Seema received an email from the International Organization for Migration saying that her flight from Pakistan to the United States, which she and her family were booked on after months of extensive interviewing and background checks by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, had been canceled.
“We had sold our TV and refrigerator,” her husband,…
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By Kaitlyn M. Sims, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of Denver
Only 33 of Colorado’s 64 counties have an emergency shelter program specifically for survivors of domestic violence. In the greater Denver area, which includes Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties, there are only five shelter programs for survivors.
I study the policies and programs that serve…
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By Christopher Hernandez, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Loyola University Chicago
Aerial lidar raises ethical questions because it can collect data remotely without the knowledge or consent of Indigenous and descendant populations that are on the ground.
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By Carolyn Dickens, Nurse practitioner and Associate Dean, University of Illinois Chicago
Nurses are leaving the profession faster than they’re being replaced – in part due to the emotional and physical toll they endure from disrespectful patients or their loved ones.
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By Heidi Reynolds-Stenson, Associate Professor of Sociology, Criminology and Anthropology, Colorado State University Pueblo
When protesters experience repression and violence, whether or not they have legal education can help determine continued involvement in a protest movement.
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