Laura Beloff’s plant seemed to be clicking. She had rigged its roots up to a contact microphone in order to detect faint, high-pitched clicks in the soil. With the help of software she had written for her computer, the frequency of the clicks had been lowered, making them audible to...
The 1973 oil crisis was a significant event in the history of the world economy that sparked Arab Nationalism. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed sanctions on the West. As a result, its allies, including the United States, experienced the most severe oil crisis of all time....
Stuck at home, we have already said ‘Hi!’ to our new partner ‘boredom’. We have nothing to do but sitting idle, wondering ‘what to do?’ Yeah, we have a few chores to do, but they are as boring as our school was before. So, here are some ways to pass...
The threat was invisible to the eye: tonnes of methane billowing skyward, blown out by natural gas pipelines snaking across Siberia. In the past, those plumes of potent greenhouse gas released by Russian petroleum operations last year might have gone unnoticed. But armed with powerful new imaging technology, a methane-hunting...
In the world’s effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the source of our food is coming into the spotlight. There’s good reason for that: Agriculture accounts for 16 to 27% of human-caused climate-warming emissions. But much of these emissions are not from carbon dioxide, that familiar climate change villain. They’re...
As a child, Fionn Ferreira spent hours exploring the coastline near his hometown of Ballydehob in south-west Ireland. But the more time he spent on the sheltered, shingle-strewn coves nearby, he grew increasingly shocked by the large amounts of plastic litter he found strewn across the beach and in the...
When you fail, make a mistake or things simply don’t go as well as you had hoped then how do you feel? Do you feel sorry for yourself? Well, that’s natural in some situations and too an extent. But do you get stuck in that mental state too often and...
There should be no doubt about it: Covid-19 vaccines are saving lives. Consider some recent statistics from the UK. In a study tracking more than 200,000 people, nearly every single participant had developed antibodies against the virus within two weeks of their second dose. And despite initial worries that the...
The race began, rather unusually, at 1:00 on a Sunday morning. It was 21 September 1879, and 13 (mostly) moustachioed athletes in tight leggings and tiny shorts had gathered under the towering arches of the original Madison Square Garden in New York – along with 10,000 raucous spectators. It was...
When we think of Italy’s volcanoes, we may assume that Etna, which overshadows Sicily, and Vesuvius, which famously destroyed Pompei, present the biggest danger to the peninsula’s population and tourists. Yet there is another monster that could wreak havoc to the southern peninsula and its islands. Its name is Marsili,...
Today I’d like to focus on a negative habit that creates insecurity within, erodes self-esteem and can make you feel quite unhappy with your own life. It’s something that has sprung up as we have moved a part of our lives on to the internet and social media. And that...
It happened suddenly and without warning. Where there should have been the emerging first shoots of potato seedlings behind the orchard in Nikola Borojevic’s spacious garden, there was now huge hole. Measuring 30m (98ft) wide and 15m (49ft) deep, it quickly filled with water. And it wasn’t the only one....
Quiet, clean and green are not words you would typically use to describe a construction site. But the site at Olav Vs gate, one of the busiest streets in the heart of Norway’s capital city, Oslo, was special. In a first of its kind in the world, all the machinery...
It stands outside the gates of the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy, the giant trade-show-meets-amusement-park intended to show off the might of Soviet industry and science. It was built at a time when the USSR was leading the space race. A time when, to quote the submarine captain in...
The story of the partition of India is an epic saga itself which is scarred with ambition, religious violence, intolerance, hatred, starvation and haste. Before the partition phase, the British had ruled India for more than 200 years. Before the British arrived, India being a multicultural nation with many religions...
In November 2020 I wrote a feature about us becoming more forgetful during the Covid-19 pandemic. My starting point was anecdotal reports from people telling me that their memories seemed to be letting them down more often during the lockdowns. In the feature I spoke to a memory researcher, Catherine...
Bukhara is one of the few cities in Central Asia that survives with fond memories. The magnificent architectures are silent witnesses to the city’s rich history. Ibn Battuta, the great traveller of history, visited this city in 1330 AD. He then called the city “the most beautiful city in the...
It was almost midnight in the southern Thai city of Trang, and I was staring into an oven the size of a tuk-tuk. Flames and smoke were shooting out of the top, and men were carefully lowering two full-grown, slaughtered pigs into the fiery abyss. An hour later, they would...
Bolivia’s La Paz is the highest capital in the world. At 3,690m in elevation, its air is cold and thin, leaving many visitors gasping for oxygen and experiencing altitude sickness, known locally as soroche. But if you push past the chaotic traffic and drive 100km north-east, descending into the sub-tropical...
“Why?” It’s a simple question, and one that people ask Angela Maxwell frequently. Yet until recently, the American struggled to answer why, exactly, she upended a perfectly fine life in pursuit of a big dream. But for Maxwell, “why” is a question worth answering. After all, she embarked on a...
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