‘Air is cleaner than before the Industrial Revolution’: a best case scenario...
The Future We Choose, a new book by the architects of the Paris climate accords, offers contrasting visions for how the world might look in thirty years (read the worst case scenario here)• Christiana...
View ArticleChristiana Figueres on the climate emergency: ‘This is the decade and we are...
The leader of the 2015 Paris accord talks about her new book, The Future We Choose, and why it’s crunch time for humanity• ‘The only uncertainty is how long we’ll last’: the worst case scenario for...
View ArticleThe surprising history of astrology – books podcast
On this week’s show, data scientist Alexander Boxer looks back over the history of astrology and reveals what it tells us about the past – and the future – of science. He tells Richard about the...
View ArticleOur House Is on Fire by Greta Thunberg et al review – a family and planet in...
A courageous family account of Greta Thunberg’s Asperger’s diagnosis becomes a must-read ecological message of hopeA movement born without a face tends to acquire one. Since August 2018, when...
View ArticleSpacefarers by Christopher Wanjek review – getting practical about our future...
Skyhooks, railguns and growing sweet potatoes on Mars … a nerdily engaging discussion of how humans might settle other planetsIn 2007, China demonstrated a new anti-satellite missile by blowing one of...
View ArticleThe Year Without Summer review – volcanic tales of changed climate
Guinevere Glasfurd’s multi-stranded novel passionately dramatises the catastrophic aftermaths of the Mount Tambora eruption in 1815The eruption in 1815 of Mount Tambora, in present-day Indonesia,...
View ArticleCan nature really heal us?
From cold-water swimming to gardening, the psychological benefits of the great outdoors have inspired a growing genre of books, but can nature improve our mental health?There is a revealing moment in...
View ArticleGreenery by Tim Dee review – hope’s eternal spring
Tim Dee’s masterly book about the movement of birds is made all the more poignant by the revelation that he has Parkinson’s disease just as his wife is expecting their first childThe inspiration for...
View ArticleSylvia Chant obituary
Development geographer whose research focused on households headed by women in the global southThe development geographer Sylvia Chant, who has died aged 60 of pancreatic cancer, challenged the idea...
View ArticleCured by Jeffrey Rediger review – stories of spontaneous healing
The power of placebos, faith, yoga, love … a psychiatrist explores cases of miraculous recovery from illnessThe placebo effect is a wonderful thing, and still highly mysterious. A person who believes...
View ArticleGreenery by Tim Dee review – journeys in springtime
A superb nature writer follows the spring as it moves north from Africa to Europe, with swallows as his guideBetween the winter and summer solstices, spring moves across Europe at about 50km per day....
View ArticleGot 150 hours? Great audiobooks to listen to on lockdown
From Ian McKellen reading Homer to Bill Bryson on the body, these audiobooks can expand your horizons, even when you can’t go outA coronavirus cultural survival kitSee all our coronavirus coverageFor...
View ArticleThe Rules of Contagion by Adam Kucharski review – outbreaks of all kinds
Modellers have a saying: “If you’ve seen one pandemic, you’ve seen … one pandemic.” But patterns can be established to do with how things spread Did you notice? There was a moment when something...
View ArticleCoronavirus is a tragedy – but it could be the wake-up call we need
Global growth was already slowing but not enough to save the Earth from disaster. Hopefully we will be shocked out of our complacencyFor some time this pandemic will focus almost all of our attention....
View ArticleFootprints by David Farrier review – fossils of the Anthropocene
From nuclear waste to huge numbers of jellyfish … what signs will future generations find of today’s ecological crisis? David Farrier’s idea in this book is to try and imagine our present moment of...
View ArticleOur new normal: why so many of us feel unprepared for lockdown life
In his former job as a war correspondent, novelist James Meek witnessed the thin line between everyday life and chaos - but no experience prepared him for our current emergencyBefore the lockdown, I...
View ArticleFrom diseases to memes, how do things spread? - books podcast
When writing his book The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop, mathematician Adam Kucharski had no idea that it would come out during a pandemic. He speaks to Claire about the...
View ArticleThe Better Half by Sharon Moalem review – on the genetic superiority of women
Women live longer than men. We know Covid-19 is killing more men than women. This book is an antidote to the myth of the ‘weaker sex’Let’s hear it for the female of the species and (more guardedly) for...
View ArticleThe Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women review – bold study of...
Sharon Moalem offers an intriguing theory on how two X chromosomes give women the edge in everything from colour vision to coronavirusIt was noticeable from the initial outbreak in Wuhan that Covid-19...
View ArticleYuval Noah Harari: 'Will coronavirus change our attitudes to death? Quite the...
Will the coronavirus pandemic return us to more traditional and accepting, attitudes towards dying – or reinforce our attempts to prolong life? The modern world has been shaped by the belief that...
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