The open letter was signed by a number of figures who have played concerts or broadcast from the observatory, including guitarist Johnny Marr, electronica pioneer Ralf Hütter of Kraftwerk, the bands New Order, Elbow and Doves, comedian Dara Ó Briain and poet laureate Simon Armitage. It stated Jodrell Bank was “an icon in UK cultural…
My earliest reading memoryI was eight when I was given The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley, after being moved from my grandmother’s care to live with my mother and her husband, who I barely knew. The story is about leaving one world, adapting to another. Surviving. It gave shape to unnamed feelings and developed my survival imagination: imagining…
Scientists in France say they have discovered the building blocks of the incredible diversity of birdsong. A team analysed the songs of more than 100,000 songbirds and revealed that the world’s birdsongs are composed of eight fundamental types of sound that the researchers call “motifs”. Birdsong all around the world, they say, is made up…
Over the past year, I’ve reported about crimes against farmworkers who have come to the U.S. legally from Mexico and Central America. Over the past year, I’ve reported about crimes against farmworkers who have come to the U.S. legally from Mexico and Central America. I haven’t stopped thinking about how they suffered. Their wages were…
Did you get to see the 2024 film Civil War, with its dystopian depiction of a present day USA in the midst of a violent meltdown? What made it such an effective thriller was that it all seemed so frighteningly real. Although the two sides in that civil war were fictitious, it hit a raw…
Machine learning is giving scientists a powerful new way to search for superconductors, materials that conduct electricity with zero resistance. An international team has demonstrated that AI can rapidly narrow an almost limitless number of possible material combinations to identify the most promising candidates. According to Aalto University Professor Päivi Törmä, who leads the SuperC…
Published on 05/07/2026 – 10:32 GMT+2 The Vikings were apparently not only a warlike people: In Søften, a small village in the Mid Jutland region north of Aarhus, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an exceptionally large craft settlement. The complex dates from the 7th to 10th centuries and covers 100,000 square metres. In total,…
Andy Burnham’s government will have to find an extra £4.7bn to fund the defence investment plan announced by the outgoing prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, a defence minster has said. Luke Pollard told the BBC the next chancellor “whoever that may be” will have to “find the resources” in their autumn Budget. In one of…
For the new study, the associate professor, who is originally from Costa Rica, highlighted how populations of amphibians had changed over recent decades as a result of issues such as climate change and deforestation. He said there was “always a big debate about how much life exists on our planet”. “The argument we, as conservationists,…
Drugmakers are only months into introducing GLP-1 pills and navigating huge changes in how patients pay for weight-loss drugs. Even so, they’re already outlining their visions for the future of obesity drugs. At the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions in New Orleans last week, drugmakers pitched doctors and investors on the idea of new shots…
