Oysters once crowded Europe’s coast – here’s how we discovered these long-forgotten reefs

| Insights & Views

Six generations ago, Europes seas possessed vast oyster reefs. Oysters were found in their millions, clustered together in reef systems that spanned hundreds of square kilometres. Now the reefs are gone and with them, our...

How chronic illness affects families – and how to cope when you know your loved one is going to die

| Insights & Views

Living with chronic illness in the family is hard. Its even harder if you know that the person you love will get worse and wont recover from their condition. Sadly, it can happen to any family at any time. Anyone a...

How a traumatic birth experience can affect breastfeeding

| Insights & Views

Giving birth can be a moment of intense joy. But for some mothers, the experience of childbirth can be distressing and can bring lasting trauma. Birth trauma can result from both physical complications and psychological...

Meet the fungi that live in the sea

| Insights & Views

Fungi dont just live in soils and with land plants, or breaking down complex materials like wood. They also thrive in the marine environment. Indeed, ocean-living fungi account for 5% of total ocean biomass. Unlike their...

‘I was left with nothing.’ Why apprentices are being pushed into the informal economy

| Insights & Views

In the UK, apprenticeships and training schemes are often seen as a gateway to skilled careers, providing invaluable hands-on training for service trade professions as varied as plumbing, engineering, accounting and...

From a colonial hill town to Idris Elba’s island masterplan, what can two Sierra Leone developments a century apart tell us about urban elitism?

| Insights & Views

Sierra Leones capital, Freetown, is celebrated as a city founded to resettle freed slaves in the 1790s. Over the following century, it became a truly cosmopolitan port city as people from across western Africa and the...

What is locked-in syndrome? The extraordinary stories that help us understand this rare condition

| Insights & Views

Locked-in syndrome is a rare phenomenon which makes conscious people almost entirely unable to move and communicate. It is estimated there are fewer than 1,000 existing cases in the US, and between 50 and 300 in the UK. In...