Niger delta map showing the study area . Credit: All Earth (2023). DOI: 10.1080/27669645.2023.2299109 The Niger Delta, in southern Nigeria, is one of the most significant oil-producing regions in the world. It spans over 70,000 square kilometers and is also an area of great biodiversity, including mangroves, swamps and rainforests. However, the region has been … Read more
The world heritage site of Stonehenge is seen in Wiltshire, England on Dec. 17, 2013. Credit: AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File The ancient ritual meaning of Stonehenge is still a mystery, but researchers are one step closer to understanding how the famous stone circle was created. The unique stone lying flat at the center of the … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain What will our climate look like in the future? It is hard to overstate not only the importance of answering this question, but also the challenges involved in doing so. We know the climate is changing rapidly. But without information about where we are headed, planning—at personal, organizational and societal levels—becomes … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Hundreds of thousands of students have now nervously opened their A-level results. These handfuls of letter grades matter, and not just to the students themselves. They have far-reaching effects on our whole education system and public views on standards in education. The impact of changes to assessment as a result of … Read more
Credit: Policy Institute, King’s College London The new government has come to power at a time when trust in politics is, in the Labor party’s words, “shattered.” Keir Starmer has set out his government’s aim to restore “the highest standard of integrity and honesty” in political life. Just how low can this crisis of trust … Read more
Octopus detail from a Roman mosaic in the ‘House of the Dancing Faun’, Pompeii (circa 1st century BC). Credit: Wikimedia If we want to research a subject, how do we do it? We could read about it in books or do experiments in a lab. Or another way is to find people who know something … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain During the solstices, thousands gather at Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in England to celebrate the monument’s astronomical alignment. The focal point of these festivities is the Altar Stone—the six-ton sandstone slab that lies flat at the center of Stonehenge. The ancient society that built this monument, from 3,100 to 1,600 … Read more
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain People who have spent time in state care as children are far less likely to go to university than their peers who have not been in care. Research has shown that the often disruptive impact of being in the care system can have a negative impact on education, such as when … Read more
Artist’s illustration of a hypothetical J1249+36-white dwarf binary pair that ends with the white dwarf exploding into a supernova (left), which sends its companion L subdwarf star flying out across the Milky Way. Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko Good morning! Here are a few of this week’s most interesting science stories to read while … Read more
Credit: AI-generated image A fish on land still waves its fins, but the results are markedly different when that fish is in water. Attributed to renowned computer scientist Alan Kay, the analogy is used to illustrate the power of context in illuminating questions under investigation. In a first for the field of artificial intelligence (AI), … Read more
