By Nishant Kumar, India Alliance Fellow, National Centre for Biological Science, Bangalore & Department of Biology, University of Oxford
Growing up in rural India, my grandmother would feed the village dog half a chapati and a bowl of milk each afternoon, surely insufficient for its needs. The dog survived by scavenging from nearby homes. Years later, living in Delhi, I encountered street dogs refusing biscuits, overfed by households competing to care for them.
India’s unique mix of religious and cultural values creates a deep tolerance for non-humans and wildlife among rich and poor alike, often rooted in millennia of coexistence. People consciously endure…
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By Carole Haswell, Professor of Astrophysics, The Open University
We live in a very exciting time: answers to some of the oldest questions humanity has conceived are within our grasp. One of these is whether Earth is the only place that harbours life.
In the last 30 years, the question of whether the Sun is unique in hosting a planetary system has been resoundingly answered: we now know of thousands of exoplanets orbiting other stars.
But can we use telescopes to detect whether any of these distant worlds also harbour life? A promising method is to analyse the gases present in the atmospheres of these planets.
We now know…
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By Rahul Sidhu, PhD Candidate, Neuroscience, University of Sheffield
A UK man who is thought to be Britain’s youngest dementia sufferer recently passed away from the disease at only 24 years old. Andre Yarham, from Norfolk in England, was just 22 when he was first diagnosed with dementia.
At the age of 24, most brains are still settling into adulthood. But Yarham’s brain looked decades older — resembling the brain of a 70-year-old, according to the MRI scan that helped diagnose him with the disease.
Yarham initially…
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By Daniele D'Alvia, Lecturer in Banking and Finance Law, Queen Mary University of London
On January 3, the world watched in disbelief as the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, was captured by US forces. It was a dramatic geopolitical event that would reverberate not just in Washington and Caracas, but deep into global financial markets.
Financial speculation erupted across prediction platforms, bond markets and even cryptocurrency. It was a frenzy that, for some, translated into enormous profits – something I have looked…
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By Berry Billingsley, Director of AI, Digital and Online Development, Swansea University
The rise of humanoid robots isn’t just a technical story – it’s a test of how much human connection we’re willing to outsource.
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By Charlie Firth, PhD Candidate, Paediatrics, University of Oxford
The UK has added chickenpox vaccination and a new 18-month appointment. Changes like these are signs the system is working, not breaking.
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By Nicolas Forsans, Professor of Management and Co-director of the Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Essex
The Trump administration has justified the recent capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as a law enforcement operation to dismantle a “narco‑state”. It also claimed it would break Venezuela’s ties to China, Russia and Iran, and put the world’s largest known oil reserves back under US‑friendly control.
This mix of counter‑narcotics, great power rivalry and energy security had already been elevated to a central priority by the administration in its national…
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By Jamie Lingwood, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Liverpool Hope University
Emma Vardy, Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, Nottingham Trent University
Fewer children in the UK are growing up with a love of books.
Following a survey that showed the proportion of children and young people reading for pleasure has fallen to its lowest level in two decades, the UK government, the National Literacy Trust and other organisations have declared 2026 a national…
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By Rachel Woods, Senior Lecturer in Physiology, University of Lincoln
Drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy reduce hunger and help with weight loss – but long-term use can make nutrient deficiencies more likely.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Nigerien military police stand guard outside airbases in Niamey, as supporters of Niger's military junta gather on August 27, 2023. © 2023 AFP via Getty Images Niger’s military junta adopted a sweeping “general mobilization” decree on December 26. The new law grants authorities far-reaching powers to confront security threats, but at the expense of human rights.The decree establishes a broad legal framework allowing the government to summon citizens, seize goods, compel the reporting of alleged “hostile activities,” and restrict communications deemed harmful…
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