How to engineer microbes to enable us to live on Mars
Alones/Shutterstock A field known as synthetic biology has become one of the most highly anticipated in science. Its outputs range from golden rice, which is genetically engineered to provide vitamin A, to advances...

‘Putin’s brain’: Aleksandr Dugin, the Russian ultra-nationalist who has endorsed Donald Trump
Aleksandr Dugin, sometimes referred to as Putins brain because of his ideological influence on Russian politics, endorsed the policies of Donald Trump in a CNN interview aired on March 30. Dugin said Trumps America has a...

The dark side of psychiatry – how it has been used to control societies
In his new book, No More Normal, psychiatrist Alastair Santhouse recalls an experience from the 1980s when he was a university student in the UK helping deliver supplies to refuseniks Soviet citizens who were denied...
Why being ‘lazy’ at work might actually be a good thing
Ground Picture/Shutterstock If youre a young person today, youve probably felt the sting of being called lazy, or caught yourself wondering if you are. Do you sometimes feel guilty when not being productive, or find...

Nigeria’s illegal gold trade – elites and bandits are working together
Illegal mining activities in Nigeria are devastating the countrys economy, as well as fuelling violence. Strategic minerals mined in the countrys north-west region include granite, gypsum, kaolin, laterite, limestone,...

Zimbabwe’s economy crashed – so how do citizens still cling to myths of urban and economic success?
It is common for nations to have myths, or narratives, that form the basis of their nationalism, or their ideas of themselves as a political community. Such popular narratives are often rooted in a romanticised or...