An extraordinary piece profiling the scientists in Siberia that are seeking to restore the Ice Age by bioengineering woolly mammoths and other creatures. Their ambition is on an epic scale – to reforge a lost world in order to preserve our present one.
A piece examining endlings, the final members of species, and human attempts to progress with something that was previously only referred to in science fiction novels – “De-extinction”.
Evidence suggests that evolution can take place much more rapidly than Darwin anticipated – this piece explores the phenomenon by looking at animals living around us in cities.
A story examining the unusual case of a middle aged woman who experiences everything in the present. The difference between her and many people in a similar situation is that rather than having the agony of losing the ability to form and access memories, she has never had it. This study of a life experienced without memory is illuminating and surprising.
A look at the trees that escape the loggers’ attentions, the epic journeys they sometimes undertake, and their importance to numerous natural ecosystems.
A wide ranging look at recent advances in criminal forensics, from using hair for DNA matches, to the value of teeth bite matches, fingerprinting, arson investigations and facial reconstruction.
A piece on postpartum psychosis, by an author (and NHS Research Fellow) who experienced it herself after the birth of her daughter.
An ambitious piece looking at observer selection effect – where a data set’s composition or properties are correlated with the very existence of its observer. The first example the piece calls on is an analysis of planes returning from WWII bombing raids with the goal of identifying which areas of the fuselage to reinforce, but it rapidly expands in scope to extinction events for our world, and our universe.
An obituary for a 43-year-old spider whose study was a career-spanning work for the zoologist that first found her. The spider was given a fitting epitaph in the scientific paper written after her death – “we can be inspired by an ancient mygalomorph spider and the rich biodiversity she embodied.”
A British man who previously spent ten years living in the desert off $10,000 a year in his effort to break the land sail speed record, has started an even more ambitious, and likely more lucrative endeavour. His company, armed with venture capital investment, is building unmanned saildrones that could have a huge impact on our understanding of the ocean, as well as myriad commercial and governmental applications.