Category Archives: science

history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Here be my monthly collection of links you may have missed …

Science, Technology, Natural World

Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine was built for the 1890 US census, and led to the first data processing company (which was to become IBM).

So just why did cat-like animals disappear from North America for 6 million years? [£££]

The curious ways of the fishing cats are being revealed by scientists.

Two stories on the discovery of new to science, or rare, species. First a variety of previously undescribed plants. And secondly the hunt for the saloa an almost never seen Asian antelope.

Health, Medicine

A review of the book Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence by Dr Gavin Francis. It turns out that proper convalescence is a hugely key stage in getting better.

Worldwide there are a very small number of people who cannot forget anything. One young woman describes what it is like to be medical exception.

Sexuality

It turns out that female dolphins have a clitoris very much like humans, which suggests they too experience sexual pleasure.

Environment

Electric cars and the like may be the way forward, but there are huge problems with their lithium batteries, especially at the end of their lives. [LONG READ]

Art, Literature, Language

There is undoubtedly a joy in rediscovering and reclaiming long-lost words, as Susie Dent extols.

So why are ministers (and educationalists) so obsessed with teaching children to read using phonics?

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Archaeologists have suggested that some ancient metal tubes unearthed over 100 years ago might be the oldest surviving drinking straws.

The body of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I is so well preserved that after 3500 years it is still able to revel much about the man, thanks to modern scanning and that it has never been unwrapped.

The remains of a huge Roman fort, built on the orders of Emperor Caligula, has been discovered near Amsterdam.

A huge mosaic floor has been found in a Roman villa in Rutland, and was featured on the BBC’s Digging for Britain.

New research is suggesting that medieval warhorses no bigger than modern-day ponies, and not huge carthorses as we thought.

London

IanVisits discovers the unexpected history of the stone benches outside Kensington’s museums.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Another of our favourite bloggers, Diamond Geezer, takes a look at the curiosities of sleep.

Meanwhile Caroline’s Miscellany discovers the old tradition of Molly dances.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

There’s sad news as the landmine-hunting hero rat Magawa has died at the age of 8 after a stellar career.

And finally something to bring joy … here’s a video of an amazing automated LEGO factory that builds miniature log cabins from cucumbers. Enjoy …

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

Monthly Links

So here for the last time in 2021 is my compilation of links you may have missed the first time.

Science, Technology, Natural World

The simplicity of Occam’s Razor was seen by a medieval monk. [£££]

Chemists are finally beginning to get to the bottom of marijuana’s skunky scent.

It has become recognised that plants are interconnected via a network of underground fungi, and now there’s a project trying to map that network.

Scientists investigating a restored coral reef in Indonesia have recorded many sounds (not yet tagged to specific species) to a backing of snapping shrimp.

Still with fish, the tiny Batman River Loach* (Paraschistura chrysicristinae, above), long thought extinct, has been rediscovered in SE Turkey. [* It’s named after the Batman River!]

Meanwhile back on dry land, scientists working on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi have identified 14 previously unknown species of shrew.

Between 2014 and 2018 there were many cats found dead especially around south London, and the perpetrator was long thought to be some warp-headed human. However research by the Royal Veterinary College has shown the cats died due to a variety of causes and were subsequently scavenged by foxes. This had long been suspected by some of us, despite being vilified by vigilante groups.

Art, Literature, Language

Artists have long been doing battle with the censor (in many forms) over the depiction of pubic hair and nudity, and photography is no different. [LONG READ]

Those much-loved kids TV characters The Clangers were not a anodyne as we all thought.

Here’s a video about an incredibly fragile instrument: the Glass Armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin. [VIDEO]

Writer Alan Garner talks about books that have been important to him.

This lady makes a living folding paper: it is sculptural, absolutely incredible and way beyond origami. [VIDEO]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Palaeontologists have found some ancient footprints which suggest that there were at least two hominid species living alongside each other in East Africa around 3.6m years ago.

Really quite modern by comparison, a 5700-year-old tomb in the Cotswolds has revealed a surprising family history of the occupants.

Around 700 years later a start was made building Stonehenge, the subject of a 2022 exhibition at the British Museum.

There is now evidence that some while after the building of Stonehenge there was a mass migration into Britain which accounts for around half of British peoples’ genetic make-up.

Still in Britain, and gradually coming closer to our time, archaeologists believe they have now found physical evidence of Roman crucifixion in Cambridgeshire.

Lastly in this section, Historic England present highlights of captivating historic site listed in 2021. [LONG READ]

London

London blogger Diamond Geezer reminds us quite how big London actually is. Well it needs to be to accommodate almost 10m people!

Food, Drink

Clare Finney in the Guardian explodes some of the biggest myths about cheese.

And in a similar vein (ouch!) Alison George in New Scientist looks at how microbes create the flavours of cheese. [£££]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

It seems that in these plague-ridden times there’s a thriving cottage industry in dream analysis.

And finally, I leave you with the magical and restful miniature world of the terrarium.

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, medical, science

Covid: England vs Europe

Why England is doing so poorly against Covid-19 compared with the rest of Western Europe? Two of our top scientific analysts, Prof. Christina Pagel and Prof. Martin McKee (both of Independent SAGE) take a quietly scathing look in this Guardian article from a few days ago.

Prof. Christina Pagel and Prof. Martin McKee

As usual, I’ll pick out some key points.

CNN, capturing a widespread view, called England’s approach an “experiment” (a leader in the Irish Times prefaced that word with “reckless”).
. . .
Since 1 June, there have been almost 3m confirmed cases of Covid-19 in England. Rather than prompting concern, this seems to have instead resulted in a perception that England has transitioned to “living with the virus”. Each week in England there are still more than 500 deaths and between 150,000 and 200,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 … Yet these numbers are rarely discussed. Presumably they are considered a necessary price to pay for the majority to get back to living a normal life (of course, many of those who are clinically vulnerable, and their family members, do not feel able to enjoy this return to normality).
. . .
England has one of the highest burdens of Covid in Europe … England’s case rates are eight to 10 times higher than some of the best performing countries, such as Spain and Portugal.
. . .
Why are our closest neighbours achieving much better health outcomes given that they, too, have their children back at school, their students back at university, and their business and leisure facilities open?
. . .
[England] had fully vaccinated 67% of its entire population by the beginning of October, far lower than countries such as Portugal (85%), Spain (79%), Denmark (75%) and Ireland (74%). Crucially, much of the rest of Europe began vaccinating teens early in the summer.
. . .
Face coverings and vaccine passports remain widespread across western Europe … Many countries have also made major investments in ventilation and filtration, while some have made CO2 monitors compulsory in certain settings … In England these measures have been scrapped.
. . .
England, not for the first time, is the odd one out in Europe. The Sage modelling subgroup … warned of the potential for new surges this autumn and considered that “a relatively light set of measures could be sufficient to curb sustained growth” – advice the government has, once again, ignored. If it looked to its European neighbours, England might realise that they are already doing just this. They are demonstrating that there is a way to be open while keeping cases low [which] works. And we should be doing it.

So what do we have? Two jumbo jets week of people dying of Covid – and yet no outcry, no concern. Escalating rates of infection amongst school-age children. And a lack of enforcement of health and safety legislation which requires employers to provide a safe working environment – see this thread on Twitter. All because we have an inept, selfish government which the great unwashed UK numpties love.

How much better would everything be if everyone took on board the old tenet: Treat other people as you would want them to treat you. Think about it. There’d be a complete paradigm shift; in everything!

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.