Europe’s microstates: the medieval monarchies that survive in our midst

| Insights & Views

Continental Europe is home to four microstates with populations of between 30,000 and 80,000 people: Andorra, on the border between France and Spain; Liechtenstein, nestled between Switzerland and Austria; Monaco, which...

Gift-giving was practised by early humans in Africa – how it spread and evolved

| Insights & Views

For many countries around the world, December is an intense, commercialised period of gift-giving. Not just within families but across all sorts of relationships, such as gifts between buyers and service providers....

My grandfather was ‘Mr Health and Safety’. His life’s quest to make work safer has been ridiculed – but the rise of the gig economy shows it’s no joke

| Insights & Views

I hope we have persuaded [the minister] of the need to do more, not merely to reduce industrial noise but to help people who have suffered industrial deafness. I confess to having some direct and personal interest in the...

Computer models are vital for studying everything from climate change to disease – here’s how AI could make them even better

| Insights & Views

Heres one definition of science: its essentially an iterative process of building models with ever-greater explanatory power. A model is just an approximation or simplification of how we think the world works. In the past,...

The Hebrew Hammer: a Hanukah film that mocks antisemitic stereotypes through its butt-kicking Jewish hero

| Insights & Views

If you watch one Hanukah film this festive season may I suggest you watch the 2003 film, The Hebrew Hammer. I am particularly partial to this film, it featured heavily in my book, The New Jew in Film, for its...

China has banned US exports of key minerals for computer chips – leaving Washington with limited options

| Insights & Views

China recently banned the export of the minerals gallium and germanium to the US amid growing tensions between the two countries on trade. The minerals are of critical economic value because they are used in computer...

What do insects do all winter?

| Insights & Views

You are standing in a forest in the middle of winter and the temperature has dropped below zero. The ground is covered in snow and the trees and bushes are naked. The insects that normally fly or crawl in warmer weather...