Over 3000 scientific papers contain explicit Beatles references in their titles. The band is here, there and everywhere, but asking me why is like peeling a glass onion. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2588902-what-is-the-most-used-beatles-song-in-academic-paper-titles/

If you can't keep your house plants alive, maybe you should buy an AI-based sensor gizmo that turns your potted plants into "emotionally connected digital pets". Yeah, that'll work. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2587671-can-a-gamified-plant-companion-help-keep-your-plants-alive/

A trove of artefacts, made by ancient humans called Denisovans, has been found in China. I went on the @newscientist.com podcast to witter on about it for a while. Apple: https://loom.ly/CQtGCC8 Spotify: https://loom.ly/O74uijE YouTube: https://loom.ly/O3JAEEk

Who were the people we call the Vikings (but who didn't call themselves that)? Neil Price's book The Sea-King and the Sorceress does a great job of revealing them as they were. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2587902-new-scientist-recommends-a-fascinating-deep-dive-into-the-real-vikings/

On the absolute TROVE of Denisovan tools and bones found in China. With @pennysarchet.bsky.social and @michael-marshall.bsky.social youtu.be/XetR1PDQqh4

We’re Finally Learning How Denisovans Lived

YouTube video by The World, The Universe And Us

youtu.be

The more we learn about chimps, the more they resemble us. But the more we learn about our evolutionary history, the more distant they are from us. @newscientist.com https://loom.ly/gpfjrNk

A cave in China held a trove of remains of ancient humans called Denisovans - including teeth, bones and over 1000 artefacts. @newscientist.com https://www.newscientist.com/article/2588304-denisovan-tools-from-cave-in-china-shows-how-mysterious-humans-lived/

So, we’re in a race between AI and climate change to see what destroys the world faster?

Community: Darkest Timeline

ALT: Community: Darkest Timeline

static.klipy.com

Almost every adult has been infected by the Epstein-Barr virus - but for some people it causes severe illnesses including cancer and multiple sclerosis. My new feature for @sciencenews.bsky.social https://www.sciencenews.org/article/epstein-barr-virus-autoimmune

Metformin, a type 2 diabetes drug, may have a handy side effect: reducing your risk of developing dementia. @newscientist.com https://www.newscientist.com/article/2586113-diabetes-drug-metformin-may-halve-the-risk-of-dementia/

We've been told the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) wrecked their ecosystem and then their society collapsed. This does not seem to be true, as I explain in @sciam.bsky.social https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-really-happened-on-easter-island/

The fundamental nature of Higher Education is changing. In lots of England you can't afford to 'go away' to university unless your parents are well off. Meanwhile large parts of the country will soon lack a wide range of subjects. This is madness. www.ft.com/content/4bf0...

Two-thirds of UK students run out of money before the end of term

Undergraduates say they are missing social events and missing meals to make ends meet

ft.com

I don't think people understand the extent to which this has been a decade plus long billionaire funded campaign (obviously Thiel is involved). We've tried to ring the alarm about these eugenicists but it is too easy for them to get parroted by the mainstream media. bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/t...

The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday

The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network

bylinetimes.com

Humans might be cathemeral - meaning we are adapted to be active both during the day and the night. @newscientist.com https://www.newscientist.com/article/2584951-did-humans-evolve-to-be-active-throughout-the-day-and-night/

The fundraising texts you delete are working on someone. It’s infuriating and heartbreaking. An 85yo in Ohio gave more than double the value of his home. A 91yo in an Indianapolis senior facility gave 25K times. The DCCC/DSCC don’t just tolerate the spammers who exploit seniors. They take part.

Hook and Squeeze

How Democratic consultants, committees, and party leaders built a fundraising spam pipeline that funnels money from a captive pool of elderly donors into their own operations.

data4democracy.substack.com

The treatment of Jason Arday was massively out of proportion to his faults. People who have committed terrible crimes have received less scrutiny, yet I don't believe anything he did or said even crossed the threshold of criminality. How many of us would have survived what he was put through? 🧵

This langur stroking a squirrel is cute, but stories like this also hint at how our tendency to keep pets first evolved - @newscientist.com https://www.newscientist.com/article/2583030-what-primates-tell-us-about-the-evolutionary-origins-of-keeping-pets/

In her new book Alive, Melanie Challenger asks a big question: what is "life"? Her answer is that life is matter that has become imbued with purpose. I have thoughts about that. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2582598-what-is-life-a-provocative-new-book-sets-out-to-redefine-it/

The cover story in this month's @sciencenews.bsky.social is my feature about Fatimah Jackson, who is figuring out what to do with human remains that institutions have acquired without consent. https://www.sciencenews.org/sn-magazine/august-2026

Want to understand human evolution but not sure where to start? Start here, with this timeline of the entire story, from the first primates to the first cities. For @newscientist.com https://www.newscientist.com/article/2583039-timeline-of-human-evolution/

Have you ever looked at a balloon animal and wondered how to describe it geometrically? Well, somebody did, and they wrote a whole paper about it - Feedback, @newscientist.com https://www.newscientist.com/article/2582605-the-mathematics-of-balloon-animals/

Artificially-elongated fingernails were a marker of social status and conspicuous leisure, but no longer, say social scientists - Feedback, @newscientist.com https://www.newscientist.com/article/2581378-a-handy-guide-to-the-science-of-super-long-fingernails/

Just loving how John Cleese, now reduced to one of his own caricatures, rages about immigrants coming to the UK and failing to accept "our" culture, from his home in ... (checks notes) ... Nevis in the Caribbean.

One patient in 20 is exposed to preventable harm in healthcare systems. Reducing these medical errors requires thinking carefully about systems and processes - @doctors-net-uk.bsky.social https://loom.ly/-1YmWig

Some characters in movies often die: wise mentors, teen girls having sex in horror movies, and, for some reason, geologists - Feedback in @newscientist.com https://www.newscientist.com/article/2580175-why-do-fictional-geologists-keep-getting-killed-off-in-movies/

Feedback has been spending far too much time reading the latest output of entirely made-up research studies from the Journal of Imaginary Research

Can you guess the origin of 7 tiny species on a fictional archipelago? | New Scientist

Feedback has been spending far too much time reading the latest output of entirely made-up research studies from the Journal of Imaginary Research

newscientist.com

There's a magazine called the Journal of Imaginary Research that publishes entirely made-up research, and their latest issue includes an evolutionary puzzle - Feedback, @newscientist.com https://loom.ly/ENG1Cq0

Fatimah Jackson is a biological anthropologist who has studied human diversity. Her latest project: working out what to do with the human remains collected by universities etc without consent. I profiled her for @sciencenews.bsky.social. https://loom.ly/hEapET8

Achievement unlocked: after years of loyal listening I finally had an email read out on @kermodeandmayo.bsky.social (from about 7:20) Apple: https://loom.ly/now2wQE Spotify: https://loom.ly/EfzmI1c YouTube: https://loom.ly/1twde8g

One of the biggest trends in human evolution is that we became a fair bit taller and a lot heavier. (Our Human Story, @newscientist.com) https://www.newscientist.com/article/2533221-how-humans-evolved-to-be-twice-as-big-as-our-ancestors/