By Markus Engstler, Chair and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg
Daniel Masiga, Head of Global Health Thematic Research Programme, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
Tsetse flies transmit some of Africa’s most persistent parasitic diseases. They have affected human health, livestock production and rural development for generations, across a region spanning millions of square kilometres in 37 sub-Saharan countries.
Human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is caused by two species of single-celled parasites. Others infect wild and domestic animals,…
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By Junior Amboko, PhD Candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences and a National Geographic Explorer, Florida Atlantic University
Kate Detwiler, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University
There are 536 species of monkeys in the world today and the Democratic Republic of Congo has a new one. Named Likweli, this rainforest primate is one of only five new African monkey species described in the past 75 years. Despite its distinctive orange lips, it has only been spotted by locals a few times since 2008. It took PhD student in biological sciences Junior Amboko (who named the new monkey) and an international team that included anthropologist Kate Detwiler years of searching by foot and canoe, and conducting field observations,…
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By Renata Roma, Research Associate - Pawsitive Connections Lab, University of Saskatchewan
Often, when people talk about their pets, they are also talking about themselves — about the things they value and the experiences that shape who they are.
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By Mitu Sengupta, Professor, Politics and Public Administration, Toronto Metropolitan University
For more than two centuries, authorities in India have tried to remove free-ranging dogs from public life. Yet efforts to eliminate them have repeatedly encountered not only practical difficulties, but fierce resistance.
Why have dogs proven so difficult to dislodge from India’s streets?
Colonial culling drives provoked the Bombay dog riots of 1832, prompting authorities to experiment with relocating dogs rather than simply…
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By Ian Mudway, Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health, Imperial College London
James Scales, Senior Research Fellow, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London
Rosamund Dove, Research Associate, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London
When London introduced the ultra low emission zone (Ulez) in 2019, the idea was straightforward: cut the dirtiest vehicle emissions and improve the air people breathe. But the big question at the time was whether this measure would actually translate into measurable health benefits.
Our new study, published in The Lancet Public Health, suggests that it has had benefits for children’s…
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By Sally Christine Reynolds, Associate Professor in Hominin Palaeoecology, Bournemouth University
Two Denisovan leg bones from Taiwan came from tall individuals. But we can’t generalise to a whole species just yet.
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By Paul Ashton, Professor of Botany, Edge Hill University
While wildfires dominated the headlines this summer, the effects of extreme heat and drought are also visible on a much smaller scale: parched lawns, wilting and browning trees and dry ditches and bogs. These changes may look temporary, but for wildlife they can have consequences that last long after the rain returns.
In some parts of the world, species have evolved to adapt to extreme heat and drought. However in Britain, which has a history of cold winters, cool summers and abundant rain, there hasn’t…
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By Amnesty International
The expanded use of surveillance technologies in Argentina during the first two years of the Javier Milei’s administration has served to expand states surveillance capabilities, profiling and reprisals in the country, creating a chilling effect on rights to privacy and freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, Amnesty International said in a new report today. The report, Sensing the Surveillance State, documents how the government implemented sweeping institutional reforms to expand its intelligence capabilities and therefore surveillance mechanisms, through executive decrees and…
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By Jeff Punch, Professor, School of Engineering, University of Limerick
Water is an amazing substance. The human body is made up of more than 50% water. Approximately 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water. We drink it, bathe in it, cook with it, clean with it. It is also used to cool data centres, which is an increasing draw on what is a scarce resource in many parts of the world.
The boom in artificial intelligence (AI) has been fuelling the construction of new data centres worldwide. This is driven by the massive computing workloads required to train and run generative AI models. AI data…
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By Saman Sobhani, PhD Candidate in Environmental Economics, Aberystwyth University
On a warm evening in May, swifts scream over rooftops, chasing insects above the traffic. A fox slips along a garden wall while gulls squabble on a supermarket roof. We tend to treat these animals as visitors. But they’re residents too, living alongside us in places designed for people.
My recent research argues this needs to change. Instead of asking how nature can make cities better for humans, urban planners should consider what cities owe the many species that already live in them.
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