Poem of the week: Huia by Bill Manhire
Giving voice to a now extinct New Zealand bird, this is a plaintive but urgent warning about ecological fragilityHuiaI was the first of birds to singI sang to signal rainthe one I loved was singingand...
View ArticleNature got us through lockdown. Here's how it can get us through the next one
The natural world thrived in this year of chaos - and its healing powers remain, if we know where to lookIf there was one mitigating circumstance about the coronavirus pandemic that first hit Britain...
View ArticleThirty books to help us understand the world in 2020
The climate crisis, gender, populism, big tech, pandemics, race… our experts recommend titles to illuminate the issues of the dayA distinguished climatologist and geophysicist, Michael Mann is director...
View ArticleFrom Moomins to murder mysteries: the best books on life outdoors
As the days grow shorter and we begin to stay in more, here are some books to remind us of the beauty and danger nature can offer, writes Stef PenneyThis year we’ve all been spending more time outside...
View ArticleWe need to talk to our kids about the climate crisis. But courage fails me...
Tim Flannery has been speaking about climate change for decades – but he’s finding it harder and harder to be the bearer of bad newsBeing a bearer of bad news is never easy. I’ve been writing and...
View ArticleNeurodivergent author Camilla Pang’s Explaining Humans wins Royal Society prize
The youngest ever winner of the prestigious award used science to compile a ‘manual for humans’ Dr Camilla Pang, whose debut uses science to explore the complexities of human behaviour through the...
View ArticleCarlo Rovelli: 'I remember my amazement at finding a whole cosmos inside a book'
The physicist on grappling with Heidegger, the lyricism of Kerouac, and the book that transformed his understanding of scienceThe book I am currently readingBeing and Time, by Martin Heidegger. And...
View ArticleIn brief: When the Lights Go Out; The Stubborn Light of Things; Olive, Again...
A marital drama driven by the climate crisis from Carys Bray, Melissa Harrison’s reflections on nature and the return of Elizabeth’s Strout’s irascible antiheroineContinue reading...
View ArticleThere Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness by...
From the underrated octopus to Dante, the Italian physicist fuses his deep knowledge of science and the artsWe live in a golden age of science writing, where weighty subjects such as quantum mechanics,...
View ArticleBernard Dixon obituary
Editor of New Scientist who saw the magazine’s circulation double during his 10 years at the helmNew Scientist, the weekly founded in 1956, owes its continuing success to Bernard Dixon, its editor from...
View ArticleThe Idea of the Brain by Matthew Cobb review – lighting up the grey matter
From clockwork to computer ... this fascinating study looks at metaphors for the brain and explores the colourful history of neuroscienceIs your brain a computer? Is mine? Is Boris Johnson’s? And if...
View ArticleThe Weirdest People in the World review – a theory-of-everything study
“Weird” stands for “western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic”. But this theory as to why Europe advanced raises difficult questionsWhy did Europe play such an outsized role in human...
View ArticleBest nature books of 2020
From the debate on land ownership to the unexpected joys of lockdown; books that explore our relationship with natureDiary of a Young Naturalistby Dara McAnulty (Little Toller)A 15-year-old boy’s diary...
View ArticleBest science books of 2020
Tidy bedrooms, how to deal with future pandemics, the human side to Stephen Hawking and pictures in the sandIn one of many unexpected outcomes of 2020, “the science” has become big news. Politicians...
View ArticleCamilla Pang: 'You have to acknowledge the hilarity of what it is to be human'
Prize-winning author Camilla Pang talks about her autism and ADHD diagnoses and her desire to challenge myths about neurodiversityThis month Camilla Pang won the Royal Society science book prize for...
View ArticleAn Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky review – it can't last
This playful meditation on lost objects, from paintings to actors and islands, is a satisfying mix of history, imagination and detailWhat, asks this book, is “more terrifying: the notion that...
View ArticleThe Human Cosmos by Jo Marchant review – learn from the stars
From Palaeolithic paintings to astrophysics … a glittering history takes in explorers, aliens and a world vanishing from viewTwenty thousand years ago, in a cave in France, Palaeolithic humans painted...
View ArticleFollowing the science: the writers who have made sense of Covid
When R numbers have been daily news, and medical officers have shared platforms with politicians, Gaia Vince reflects on a challenging and exhilarating year of being a science writerThis year has had...
View ArticleExpert by Roger Kneebone review – the value of expertise
The pandemic has made the necessity of relying on experts evident to all ... this is a rich exploration of lifelong learningBefore the Brexit referendum in 2016, Michael Gove announced that Britain had...
View ArticleVesper Flights by Helen Macdonald review – a collection of natural wonders
Essays that test the boundaries of our relationships with animals and, above all, birdsIn the introduction to this collection of 41 “new and collected essays”, Helen Macdonald suggests that we think of...
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