On the high-speed train gliding smoothly from Berlin to Düsseldorf, a young man started chatting to me. He eventually asked, “What are some of the cultural differences you’ve noticed between Germans and Americans?” As if on cue, a middle-aged woman hovered over us and gave a harsh, “Shh!” with her...

Ten million deaths per year. It’s an unfathomable figure, but one that Gerald Larrouy-Maumus mentions often. It is the potential toll facing the world as disease-causing microbes develop resistance to our best defence against them – antibiotics. Currently, 700,000 people die each year of drug-resistant diseases. Over the past decade...

In the haze of an overcast April afternoon, the rust-stained hull of the Andrey Dolgov slapped its way through the ocean swell, oily water gushing from the ship’s waterlogged bilge as it made a desperate attempt to flee. Pursued by a sleek, heavily armed naval patrol boat, the ungainly fishing...

As many countries ease lockdown restrictions, residents are returning to old spaces that now feel unfamiliar. The places themselves did not change – but from wearing masks to avoiding crowds, the way we are allowed to navigate them is going to be radically different. Many of these changes may remain...

As Covid-19 cases fill the world’s hospitals, among the sickest and most likely to die are those whose bodies react in a signature, catastrophic way. Immune cells flood into the lungs and attack them, when they should be protecting them. Blood vessels leak, and the blood itself clots. Blood pressure...