Ten years ago, I walked the route of HS2, the 140-mile railway proposed to run from London to Birmingham, to discover what lay in its path. Nothing had actually been constructed of this, supposedly the first phase of a high-speed line going north. The only trace was the furtive ecological consultants mapping newts and bats…
The first new treatments for gonorrhoea in decades could be a “huge turning point” in efforts to combat the rise of superbug strains of the bacteria, researchers have said. Gonorrhoea is on the rise around the world, with more than 82m infections globally each year and particularly high rates in Africa and countries in the…
These jet streams , steering storm systems across continents. Stronger (faster) jet streams can intensify storm systems, whereas weaker (slower) jet streams can stall storm systems, leading to prolonged rainfall and flooding. 2025’s intense summer of flooding Most summers, the polar jet stream into Canada and weakens considerably, leaving the continental US with calmer weather….
In 2025, dinosaurs were everywhere. In May, the BBC revived their landmark series Walking With Dinosaurs, while July saw the release of Jurassic World Rebirth, the seventh film in the extinction-proof Jurassic Park franchise. Rising auction prices for dinosaur skeletons were a . And a record-breaking number of visitors (6.3 million in 2024–2025) flocked to the…
The Winter Solstice is more than a date in the calendar. For over four millennia, this event marked an important turning point in the passage of nature, when winter officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere. For one day each year, it marked the moment when the power of light is weakest and when night is…
Evidence suggests Ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom began almost a century later/ Image: Pexels For more than a century, historians have worked with a broadly agreed timeline for Ancient Egypt, anchoring its major eras to king lists, inscriptions and archaeological layers. One of the most important of those turning points is the start of the New…
A proposed wage employment programme that the government plans to introduce in Parliament would end the demand-driven nature of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which it seeks to replace, researchers and labour rights activists have warned. The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill, 2025, expected to be tabled…
On December 16 in the early hours of the day, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V will carry 27 of Amazon’s Leo satellites into orbit in a bid to realise Amazon’s ambitious constellation initiative, which will see it establish a global satellite internet network. The launch will take place at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space…
Delhi is once again choking. Air quality has deteriorated rapidly, emergency restrictions are back in force, and daily life across the city has been disrupted. Construction has stopped, offices are operating with limited staff, and schools are switching modes. Delhi and the National Capital Region are now under GRAP-IV, the strictest stage of India’s air-pollution…
You might be feeling stressed out seeing the headlines about “super flu” and comparing the current winter health challenges with 2020 and Covid. Amid all the noise, it’s difficult to know how bad this flu really is – and how much is political spin. I should start by saying “super flu” is not a scientific…