UK wildfires: prevention is more than a fire service issue
Aug 13, 2018 14:33 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
The huge moorland fires at Saddleworth and Winter Hill in northwest England have shown just how serious a problem wildfires can be in the UK. Now the fires are out, it is time to look at how such catastrophes can be...
A disappointing earring, and the world's hottest rock: zirconia
Aug 13, 2018 14:09 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
My favourite gem is an occasional series in which we ask a scientist to share the fascinating geological and social features of a beautiful rock. Just last week, my partner handed me an earring that she had found in a...
Figs, ferns and featherwoods: learn all about Australia's native trees and plants
Aug 13, 2018 14:01 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
Sign up to the special Beating Around the Bush newsletter here. Australia is classified as megadiverse meaning its a global hotspot for plant and animal diversity, and has vast numbers of unique species found nowhere...
Aug 13, 2018 13:50 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
The brain is a precision instrument. Its function depends on finely calibrated electrical activity triggering the release of chemical messages between neurons. But sometimes the brains careful balance is knocked out of...
What is causing Florida's algae crisis? 5 questions answered
Aug 13, 2018 13:50 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
Editors note: Two large-scale algae outbreaks in Florida are killing fish and threatening public health. Along the southwest coast, one of the longest-lasting red tide outbreaks in the states history is affecting more than...
Climate change and wildfires – how do we know if there is a link?
Aug 13, 2018 13:50 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
Once again, the summer of 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere has brought us an epidemic of major wildfires. These burn forests, houses and other structures, displace thousands of people and animals, and cause major...
Hothouse Earth: seven things you can do to stop it
Aug 13, 2018 13:42 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
If global temperatures are allowed to rise by 2℃, we face creating a Hothouse Earth that would shift the planet to an irreversible state, a recent research paper warns. This has provoked a global frenzy in social, news and...
Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility
Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget
Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects