Category Archives: environment

environment, history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Here are my monthly links to items you may have missed, but didn’t know you didn’t want to.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Despite extensive studies, scientists still can’t agree on Chernobyl’s impact on wildlife. [LONG READ]

Try putting your ear to the ground … scientists are discovering that life in the soil is unexpectedly noisy. [LONG READ]

So can melting permafrost release ancient pathogenic microbes? [£££££]

It seems that magpies care! They’ve outwitted scientists by helping each other remove tracking devices.

But an even bigger problem … Do birds have language, at least in a way we would recognise? [LONG READ]

Finally in this section … a very short piece on the curiosities that are Britain’s pipefish.

Health, Medicine

A very worrying look at how the GP’s job has changed in the last 30 years. [LONG READ]

Researchers are discovering that bones are a lot more than bits of scaffolding.

How does what you eat affect your sleep, and vice versa?

What happens when depression collides with the menopause and perimenopause? [LONG READ]

Oh dear! Apparently everything we thought we knew about posture is wrong. [LONG READ] [£££££]

At last some good news … Apparently dark chocolate (at least in moderation) is good for your health, and for the microbiome.

Sexuality

So here’s a relationship therapist on how to have better sex.

Environment

Cranes were reintroduced to Britain in the late 1970s, and now they’ve had their best year for 400 years.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

A fossil of a large pterosaur has been found on the Isle of Skye.

Recent research is suggesting that the meteor which killed off the dinosaurs fell to Earth in the Spring.

Palaeontologists are coming to the conclusion that the extinction of the Neanderthals was not caused by the brutal domination of Homo sapiens.

Remains of woolly mammoth, and some other Ice Age remains have been found in Devon.

Some important prehistoric chalk sculptures, thought to be childhood artefacts, have been uncovered in Yorkshire.

Trousers are one of those wonders of civilisation in that their construction is not overtly simple or logical. So it’s astonishing that the oldest known “pants” seem to have originated in Asia, and a pair is survived around 3000 years. And the weaving is absolutely amazing.

Back at home, Museum of London archaeologists have found an 8m Roman mosaic floor in Southwark, just south of the Thames.

Here’s our favourite Medieval Historian on the power and influence of women in medieval times. [LONG READ]

Still with the medieval, researchers have found what appears to be the earliest known account of ball lightning in England, dating from 1195.

London

Just one London item this month … the Museum of London will close this December for 4 years, while it moves to its new home in the old Smithfield Market.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

And finally in this issue … British Naturism has, again, pointed out that it is not illegal to go naked in your back garden, and that it is not a matter for the police.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

OK, so here we go with this month’s link to items you may have missed …

Science, Technology, Natural World

I don’t understand why it is that many people are afraid of spiders, because they’re much smarter than we realise.

Do you know what a wasp smells like? No, nor me. But scientists are now beginning to work it out. Oh and Vespula germanica used in tis study is one of the two common wasp specie in the UK.

While on Hymenoptera, apparently the old undisturbed woodland at Blenheim in Oxfordshire has colonies of heirs of the long lost British Honeybee. At first I found this so unlikely I had to check it wasn’t 1 April.

Researchers are now beginning to eavesdrop on embryonic/foetal animals to understand how they respond to sound. We’d known for some time that there was communication between between adults and embryos, but mostly not what it meant.

Health, Medicine

Apparently the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has cut the rate of cervical cancer by around 87%.

In other research, medics are now trying to understand “immune amnesia”, where a disease (usually a virus) turns off or supresses the immune system even after recovery. Measles is especially good at this, and it could go some way to explaining why some recover especially slowly from some diseases (Covid and glandular fever come to mind). [LONG READ]

Sexuality

So here’s yet another look at ways to achieve great sex. Doesn’t it all come down to what works for you?

Environment

A new way of looking at climate change has been developed: a map showing where carbon needs to stay in nature.

As Jane Dunford in the Guardian finds out, beavers are having a significant impact on the environment where they’ve been reintroduced. Oh and just get their names!

Apparently Europe has lost almost 250 million House Sparrows in the last 40 years – that’s roughly the current UK population of sparrows every year for 40 years. Many other species are doing this badly as well, although some birds of prey are doing well.

Art, Literature, Language

The origins of “Transeurasian” languages appears to have been traced to traced to Neolithic millet farmers in NE China.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Glass is an everyday substance for us, but there’s still a puzzle over where it was first discovered.

As well as having high class glass, Ancient Egypt had sacred baboons although they are not indigenous to the area. Where and how were they acquired? [£££] [LONG READ]

There are a lot of large pits near Stonehenge, and it turns out they’re Neolithic and man-made, rather than natural.

Las Vegas is nothing new: the ancient Romans had a party town all their own but it is now submerged in the sea

Nearer at home Roman Britain is still producing a stream of archaeological discoveries.

The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold coins to be found in England has been declared treasure at an inquest.

Meanwhile historians are revealing the secrets of the tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral

When an antiques dealer bought a dirty wooden bird little did he realise to has and important artefact from the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

Still with the Tudors, some unsuspected, and almost pristine wall paintings have been uncovered at Calverley Old Hall in Yorkshire.

So just why is it that the Gunpowder Plot has continued to be remembered and celebrated for over 400 years?

You think we (in the UK) have a corrupt government? It has nothing on the parliaments of the 18th century. [£££]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Why is body hair still a no-no, especially in the world of dance?

And now three items on modern witchcraft. First from a Scottish hedge-witch. Second on the myth of the Halloween Hag. Lastly on the witch as a modern feminist icon.

And stay right there as we’ll end on the esoteric … The sentimental celluloid fairy is essentially a product of Disney as fairies were originally rather malevolent.

Have a good Christmas everyone; the Fates permitting we’ll be back with the next edition to enliven those dreary days between Christmas and New Year.

environment, science

Grasslands

There’s an interesting comment piece in the current issue of New Scientist, which highlights the importance of grasslands as an important contributor to combating global warming. This is something I’d not fully considered before.

As usual the TL;DR summary quotes (especially as New Scientist is paywalled).

Permanent grasslands hold about a third of Earth’s terrestrial carbon … More grasslands, and especially more biodiverse ones, means more natural carbon storage.
. . .
The past 100 years has seen this terrain destroyed on a terrifying scale. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the UK alone has lost at least 97 per cent of its meadows. Tall grass prairie in the US once covered 170 million acres, less than 4 per cent of which survives.
. . .
Grasslands are seen as empty spaces. They are there to be ploughed and sown and built on. T heir destruction isn’t met with the same angst as deforestation.
. . .
While we are all familiar with the idea of forests as Earth’s “lungs”, reforestation isn’t the sole or simple solution to the problems we face
. . .
Even small mown and grazed meadows contain a greater diversity of flora and fauna than equivalent areas of forest … At either extreme of grassland management – mown short or left long – there are species that thrive.
. . .
Grasslands can provide an ideal environment for us to enjoy as places to eat, work and play in nature, while also providing the essential functions of carbon sequestration and oxygen-releasing photosynthesis.

Think on …

environment, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

Welcome to another action packed edition of our monthly collection of links to items you may have missed the first time around.

Science, Technology, Natural World

On the uselessness of useful knowledge – or how AI is developing.

Do you have an inner voice that chatters away to you? Most people do in some form, but some don’t and some have bizarre inner voices.

So just why is 42 the answer to everything? [£££] [LONG]

And why is it that some organisms throw away large amounts of DNA during early development? [LONG]

It appears that our modern domestic horses originated in southwest Russia.

Recent years have produced a deluge of dinosaur fossils in China, and they’re totally changing the dinosaur history. Like T. rex with feathers?! [£££]

If that worried you, then go hide now. Because jumping spiders’ remarkable senses capture a world beyond our perception.

Health, Medicine

MessangerRNA is behind some of the very successful Covid-19 vaccines, but it is also now beginning to transform the way we treat many illnesses. [£££]

Sexuality

Yet more on the forbidden erotica of ancient Pompeii. [VIDEO]

And now for three items on the (hopefully normalisation and) liberation of female genitalia …
Labia liberation!, the movement to end vulva anxiety. [LONG]
Viva la vulva, ignorance about the basic biology is shockingly high. [LONG]
An interview with Jamie McCartney, creator of The Great Wall of Vagina.

Environment

We’re running out of fish shit, and it matters. [£££]

We’re also running out of species, as apparently almost half Britain’s biodiversity has gone in the last couple of hundred years.

Forty Hall in north London has been chosen as a site for a beaver release project.

Meanwhile it is important we learn to live with, if not love, our house guests.

It seems that volcanic ash and lava enriches the oceans far faster than it does land.

The Campaign for Better Transport has called for a ban on domestic flights and subsidy for rail travel.

One photographer has made it her mission to photograph the plastic in our seas.

Art, Literature, Language

On the origins and setting of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Some Chileans are living on top of a hoard of some of the earliest known mummies.

Archaeologists have uncovered a remarkably rare, painted Roman amphitheatre at Richborough in Kent.

It s now well established that the Vikings got to America almost 500 years before Columbus, with their Newfoundland site now firmly dated to 1021AD.

On the development of the medieval Westminster Abbey. [LONG]

Staying with ecclesiastical sites, archaeologists have discovered the unexpected site of the tannery at Fountains Abbey.

On menstruation and how men developed a horror for it in the middle ages.

And so, coming up to Halloween, three items on witchcraft …
First a look at how the historic witches are beginning to receive justice.
Secondly a Twitter thread about witch bottles.
And thirdly on the long and underappreciated history of male witches

London

London’s Underground system had a very early spiral escalator; unfortunately it seems never to have fully commissioned and working.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Here’s a recently released, but old, interview with our favourite Zen Master, Brad Warner.

The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan cares for its happiness more than for its GDP.

current affairs, environment

Just-in-Time

How many times have you seen a gap on a supermarket shelf, and on enquiring been told some variant of “Oh, it should have been on last night’s delivery, but wasn’t”? I know I’ve had this any number of times. Yet another failure of Just-in-Time delivery.

While this may be excusable when the product is perishable, like fresh fruit and veg, it really isn’t good enough for sanitary towels, drugs for the hospital, or parts for the factory down the road.

Just-in-Time delivery was a product of Toyota in 1950s Japan, and has taken over worldwide supply chain logistics since it hit the west in the 1980s.

Effectively every sector has seen it as a way of reducing cost: no idle stock overheads; no warehouses to be paid for; no warehouse staff to employ. And who can blame them when shareholders want ever more profit and managers need ever fewer overheads.

But as Kim Moody outlines in this Guardian article, there’s a problem. All too often it is Just-not-in-Time. Because the supply chain is now so incredibly complex and lengthy that any slight hiccup has a dramatic domino effect. And there is no safety margin in the way of warehoused stock.

A relatively small (in the overall scheme of things) hiccup can be enough to tip the balance. An unexpected exponential rise in natural gas prices. A large ship wedged sideways in the Suez Canal. A volcano erupting and disrupting aviation flight paths. And that’s without mega-disruptions like a pandemic, or own goals like Brexit.

Without every cog of the global supply chain working like well oiled clockwork, Just-in-Time isn’t. In today’s world logistics managers, and their downstream clients, work on the basis that the supply chain is working properly. They have no choice when the whole system is geared this way and they have no access to resources to provide contingency.

But, again as Moody points out, the contingency comes at a price – a price which is passed on to the end consumer. And as consumers we have gotten too used to ever cheaper everything, and fail to understand when prices rise. Joe Public doesn’t understand (or care about) economics; he cares about only his wallet and having strawberries all year round. Nor does he understand how this drive for ever faster capitalism is driving climate change.

We need to slow down. And we need to adjust the supply chains as well as our consumerism. We need to stop shipping stuff halfway round the world when we have the same product at home or very close by. Think: New Zealand lamb; Chilean wine; Peruvian asparagus – the examples are endless just in the supermarket. [On which note, well done to Waitrose for committing that all their own brand meat is British and for continuing to win awards for animal welfare.]

I end with Moody’s parting comment:

Now is the time to think about not just how we make and consume things, but also how we move them.

environment, ramblings

Gleditsia

In 2014 we funded the council to plant a street tree outside our house. They planted a small Gleditsia sp. – a honey locust. They’re lovely trees with vibrant green leaves from May to October. And, although they’re not native to the UK, they’re good street trees as they’re ornamental and attractive but without casting deep shade. After a slow-ish start, in the last couple of years it has taken off – I reckon it’s grown around 3 feet this summer alone.

Being autumn it is now turning a glorious yellow – although I doubt it is going to go the deep gold it has in the last two autumns. On Saturday I took advantage of the sun and went out to photograph it. Here it is, a street tree in all it’s glory in its suburban setting.

Street Gleditsia
[The image is made up of eight separate photographs which have been montaged together,
a technique picked up years ago from the work of David Hockney.]

Like all trees, street trees are incredibly important; they help reduce the temperature on hot streets, control water run-off, absorb CO2 and enhance our mental health. So we need more as a part of expanding tree cover to combat climate change. Sadly, though, in many areas they’re increasingly under threat. Which is why we did our small part in funding an extra tree. And, more generally, why we’ve crammed as many trees as we sensibly can into our suburban garden.

I’m sure most of our neighbours don’t care about trees if they even notice them. Some people and organisations are positively anti-tree, seeing them having no purpose, creating a nuisance, and threatening the foundations of their houses. (This latter is, of course, true if they’re planted in the wrong place.)

Fortunately not everyone feels this way and there is a growing realisation of the importance of street trees – indeed all trees. As Spaceship Earth say:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The second best time is now.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

Our usual round up of links to items you may have missed the first time.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Let’s start with a mind-boggling look at just how big solar flares can be. [LONG READ]

How and why have geologists have lost a billion years from their records. [LONG READ]

Kew Gardens is one of my favourite places and now they’re in the record books for having the largest plant collection at a single site.

Now this is weird. If you thought luminescent platypuses were odd, then how about wasps’ nests that glow green under ultraviolet light.

Ancient Egyptian mummified cats are helping to unravel the mysteries of ancient textile dyes.

On the problems of people who take aliens seriously.

An interesting item on the work of the detectives untangling fraud and counterfeiting in the global supply chains. [LONG READ]

Health, Medicine

Lingering post-illness symptoms like long Covid are likely to be much more common than we think. I certainly had symptoms which lingered for many years after I had glandular fever.

Environment

There’s a 30-year project planned to rewild a huge area of the Scottish Highlands.

This has to be a candidate for headline of the year: “Old Irish Goats return to County Dublin to protect hills from wildfires”. Who knew that Old Irish Goats were a thing?

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Researchers excavating a cave in Gibraltar have found a sealed chamber which may contain undisturbed relics of Neanderthals.

Work on dating some ancient footprints in New Mexico suggests they’re the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas.

Experts in southern France are doing a giant jigsaw puzzle to piece together the remains of a Roman fresco.

This is an old piece in which our favourite medievalist, Dr Eleanor Janega, points out that there is no such thing as the “Dark Ages”.

Eleanor Janega again examines ancient ideas on semen retention.

More genetic studies are revealing how humans island-hopped to settle remote Pacific, taking their statues styles with them.

London

“Downing Street was first built in 1680 by Sir George Downing: an unscrupulous, brutal, and miserly man – which is rather fitting, given that the street which bears his name has been the home to so many politicians.”
Historic London looks at the “menagerie” of Downing Street.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

A look at how nihilism (at its simplest, a declaration that life is meaningless) can help make you happier, even in these troubled times. Hmmm – Yeah – Maybe.

An interesting theory on what ancient money can tell us about the future of computers. [£££££]

It keeps being tried, and succeeding, but always ignores it. A look at the case for a shorter working week. [LONG READ]

Photographer Eric Kim looks at 12 lessons he learnt from the work of Japanese cult street-photographer Nobuyoshi Araki.

People

It’s surely very British that 30 after his death the lone figure of Alfred Wainwright is still a cult figure looming large over the Lake District. [LONG READ]

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

Finally, earlier this month it was time for the 2021 Ig Nobel awards, which included an award for the investigation which found sex can relieve nasal congestion.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

This month we have a well packed collection of links to items you may have missed the first time, so let’s get in …

Science, Technology, Natural World

You know those experiments physicists are always doing to spot invisible subatomic particles? Here’s an item on how they do it. [LONG READ]

One scientist looks at five reasons why sorting out evidence for UFOs is so scientifically challenging. [£££££]

The Gulf Stream is an important factor in controlling the Northern Hemisphere’s climate, but scientists have now seen warning signs that it is about to collapse.

They’re dastardly cunning and to cap it all it seems squirrels use parkour tricks when leaping from branch to branch.

The genomes of living animals are littered with DNA from long-extinct relatives, which is beginning to provide information on evolution, extinctions, and maybe even solutions to current agricultural problems. [LONG READ]

While we’re looking for clues, two studies have successfully detected DNA of wildlife in the air around us. This could become a valuable new way to detect rare wildlife in hostile environments.

Just what genetic tricks do the longest-lived animals need to drive their longevity? [LONG READ]

Health, Medicine

One young woman tells us about something most of us have never heard of: pelvic congestion syndrome. [LONG READ]

Sexuality

Our favourite medieval historian tells us about the power of pushing back against the marginalisation of sex workers – then and now.

Environment

Have you ever seen a ghost-pond? If not Norfolk apparently has loads of them, and they’re being restored to uncover a treasure trove of long-lost plants.

The UK government has given a rather (too?) cautious welcome to beavers and indicated they’ll receive legal protection.

Birds of prey are declining in the UK, but one farmer is trying to lure them back by laying out dinners of roadkill etc. on raised “sky tables”.

Oh dear! The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again. They may produce better light for us (compared with the old sodium lamps) but it seems that LED streetlights are causing significant declines in moth numbers in England.

So just how hard is it to recycle a jumbo jet?

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Long, long ago during the ice-ages, when sea level was much lower, the North Sea was an inhabitable oasis connecting the British Isles to mainland Europe. Despite being overwhelmed this so-called “Doggerland” is giving up its secrets due to fishing and dredging.

So how did the Mayans survive in the extreme monsoon climate of Meso-America? They had some really surprising technology!

Archaeologists in Finland have revealed the puzzling burial of an Iron Age leader. However the grave goods don’t entirely fit with the normal expectation of such leaders being male, and the suggestion is that this individual was in some way non-binary.

Why did Harold Godwinson lose the Battle of Hastings? Because his elder brother Swegen died some years earlier leaving the way open for Harold to seize the kingdom. [LONG READ]

700 years before McDonald’s, London’s first recorded takeaway was selling venison, pheasants and boiled meat.

[Tablet magazine; 2013]

Here we go again! The Voynich manuscript has resolutely refused to give up its secrets despite years of effort by researchers. Now another is hoping that the lock can be cracked using linguistic statistical methods.

Dr Eleanor Janega, our favourite medieval historian, reappears in her rightful place with two articles about medieval summers: “On Leisure in August” and “On Bad Summers“. [BOTH LONG READS]

Food, Drink

Anyone interested in beer, might be staggered to know that German chemists have identified over 7,700 different chemical formulas, each with as many as 25 different molecular structures, in a range of 400 beers.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Well colour me black and blue! It turns out that getting a tattoo can be a powerful means of reclaiming your body and processing grief or trauma – Oh, and getting decorated. Of course it is; like piercing it is a rite of passage.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally I leave you with this thought:

[New Scientist, 23 July 2021]
arts, environment, history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

Once more unto the monthly links round up, and we’ve got a goodly collection this month.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Breaking my rule not to blog about Covid-19, but it seems it is all too easy to fake lateral flow tests.

Let’s go into the weird world of the workings of smell receptors. [LONG READ]

While on smell, here’s an item which looks at normal personal body odour and it’s effects on relationships.

Cats are inscrutable and mysterious creatures, but what do they really get up to when we’re not looking.

Health, Medicine

Oh dear, here’s another item on Covid-19 that’s crept in under the radar: how were the Covid-19 vaccines made so quickly without cutting corners?

Scientists are now beginning to unlock the effects of our “gut microbiome” on our health. [LONG READ]

Also on a food theme, it seems that eating milk chocolate in the morning has a beneficial effect on fat metabolism, although it is no better for the waistline.

Medics are suggesting that much common treatment for endometriosis is actually making things worse.

And still on women’s health, here’s a look at the problems many women have with perimenopause and periods. [LONG READ]

Environment

Our predecessors got it right: trees among crops can help both farmers (with improved yields and diverse crops), the environment and thus the climate. [LONG READ]

Meanwhile we can all help the environment by turning those nice areas of mown grass into meadows, as quite a few councils are doing. [LONG READ]

There’s a new arrival on Exmoor: the first baby beaver born there in 400 years!

Art, Literature, Language

This piece contains a video of the amazing and skilled process of making a violin. [30 minute video]

At long last an academic has created an annotated version of Robert Burton’s 400 year old The Anatomy of Melancholy and seemingly unlocked many of its secrets. (Be warned before you buy this: it is a tome bigger than a house brick and totally impossible to read in bed.)

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Palaeontologists have uncovered a site containing thousands of fossilised marine organisms; it’s been likened to a “Jurassic Pompeii”!

Archaeologists are also gradually piecing together something of the lives of Neanderthal children, often from footprints which gives clues about their activity. [LONG READ]

Staying with the Neanderthals, one of them had the creativity and imagination to carve a geometric design in a piece bone.

Coming slightly closer to home, there is the suggestion that Stone Age Europeans may have worn make-up. [£££]

Scientists are also now making progress on understanding what ancient people ate by analysing clues embedded in, rather than on, their pottery. [LONG READ]

About the only good thig to come out of the HS2 project is the archaeology it has spawned. One of the latest finds is a hoard of 2200-year-old coins in Hillingdon.

Researchers have been able to extract and analyse DNA from a mummified 1600-year-old Iranian sheep and shown that it was genetically very similar to the breeds currently kept in that area.

There’s a cave in Derbyshire which is thought to be the early ninth-century home of the deposed and exiled Eardwulf, King of Northumbria.

A new analysis is confirming a previous suggestion that some of the stained glass in Canterbury Cathedral is amongst the world’s oldest, and predates the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170.

And talking of Thomas Becket, why were his bones moved only 50 years after his death?

The travel guide is far from being a modern invention, for instance we have the medieval travel guide of Cristoforo Buondelmonti.

What did it mean to be a “damsel” in medieval times? [LONG READ]

One of the mysteries of medieval buildings is why so many have obvious burn marks on the wood. It seems it isn’t quite what we thought! [LONG READ]

London

There’s a hidden tram station in central London, and it is going to be opened to the public for the first time in 70 years.

If you see a grille, vent or unlikely structure in London street, there’s a good chance it is a portal to the capital’s hidden underworld.

Over 100 years ago, London Underground’s Piccadilly Line had a revolutionary spiral escalator.

Food, Drink

What should we be eating in order to do our bit for climate change? Here are some of the most sustainable foods, from seaweed to venison.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

If you want to be a better gardener, James Wong says you should be breaking all those quirky Victorian rules about how to do it.

The art of really listening: “Be interested, be curious, hear what’s not said”.

Here’s a look at some of the taboos around body hair (mostly female). Basically it what you feel comfortable with.

Contrary to popular belief researchers have discovered that two-thirds of couples start out just as friends.

But on the other side of the coin, many friendships fade out, and that’s OK.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally, we have a major problem with our serfs.

arts, environment, history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Welcome to this month’s edition of my links to items you may have missed the first time around. We’ve got a lot to pack in this month so let’s get going …

Science, Technology, Natural World

An interesting philosophical look at science points out that it can’t supply absolute truths about the world – the scientific method is based on continual questioning and revision – but it brings us steadily closer. [£££]

Here’s one guy who studies UFOs, mostly debunks them and doesn’t buy into all the hype.

A group of volunteers spent 40 days in a cave with no natural light or clocks. The group’s organiser explains why, and apparently many want to go back. [LONG READ]

New research suggests that the ancient Coelacanth can live for 100 years, rather than the previously thought 20 years.

But that’s nothing compared with some Bdelloid rotifers which have apparently survived 24,000 years frozen in Siberia.

How can I move on without an item on wasps? Here’s a simple guide to what is, and isn’t a wasp. [LONG READ]

Health, Medicine

An increased number of people have struggled with mental health over the last 18 months. Here’s one person’s guide to actually asking for help.

Medical researchers at University of East Anglia (my alma mater) are having thousands of men trial a home testing kit for prostate cancer.

Meanwhile there’s a new blood test to detect 50 different cancers, often years before they’re obvious. The NHS is currently running an big trial to see how the test performs in the clinic.

[TRIGGER WARNING]
Here two women talk about their experience of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Sexuality

It’s worrying that a survey has found many Britons cannot name all parts of the vulva. What a sad indictment of our pathetically puritanical attitudes and sex education.

Nevertheless hot sex is back on this summer.

Environment

Britain’s largest grasshopper, the Large Marsh Grasshopper, is being bred in captivity and released into some of its former East Anglian habitats.

I’ve always said that renewable energy isn’t the environmental no-brainer it seems. Here’s one example of why: destructive lithium mining.

Art, Literature, Language

A new biography of William Blake offers a glimpse into the artist and poet’s visionary mind.

There’s also about to be a new edition of a 400-year-old self help book, Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy.

A random walk through the English Language can produce curious and intriguing results. [£££]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Chinese archaeologists have unveiled some remains of a supposed new hominin, nicknamed “Dragon Man”. Could he be a mysterious Denisovan? Or (perhaps more likely) a hoax?

Meanwhile new clues appear to show that people reached the Americas around 30,000 years ago, rather earlier than previously thought.

Researchers are now suggesting Iron Age people were emotionally attached to their possessions. Well, surprise!

The Roman Empire was not such a good place: a shackled skeleton is thought to be rare evidence of slavery in Roman Britain.

Dr Eleanor Janega, of Going Medieval, has a new book out: a graphic look at medieval history, which debunks most of our misconceptions. Here’s a sneak preview.

It seems the medieval fashion for very pointy shoes created an explosion of bunions. The same team have shown that victims of the Black Death were often buried with considerable care, contrary to our usual expectations.

Dr Eleanor Janega, again, looks at sex work in medieval times, and where it was allowed to happen, with special reference to London.

London

More up to date here’s an article on some 18th-century grottoes which can still be found in and around London.

IanVisits asks whether the pantograph could make a return to London’s buses, if nly in a restricted way.

From sharks to seahorses: six species you probably didn’t know were swimming in the Thames.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

A new “pop-up” women’s urinal, the Peequal, could help reduce queues for the loo.

People

Magawa the mine-detecting rat has retired after 5 years hard work in Cambodia.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally, we can’t end without a look at some of the bizarre entries in Cuprinol Shed of the Year.