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I struggle to keep my footing on a narrow ridge of earth snaking between flooded fields of rice. The stalks, almost ready to harvest, ripple in the breeze, giving the valley the appearance of a shimmering green sea. In the distance, steep limestone hills rise from the ground, perhaps 400 feet tall, the remains of […]

I have a background in microbiology – for my PhD I studied the corkscrew-shaped bacterium Campylobacter jejuni – so when I was recently asked to interview Rutgers University microbiologist Paul Falkowski for the brilliant website Five Books, I jumped at the chance to hear about his recommended reads. First up was what Falkowski describes as […]

Here’s a gorgeous video featuring a mechanical model of the solar system, attributed to the famed Greek inventor Archimedes and now reconstructed by the London-based mechanician Michael Wright. This globe, made from copper and brass (although the original would have been bronze) displays the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets as they travel through […]

A blue game pawn, bone flute and part of a plate, made up of delicate coils of blue and yellow glass, are among the latest artefacts to be retrieved from the famous Antikythera shipwreck. My article about the expedition is published in today’s issue of New Scientist. When my book about the Antikythera mechanism, Decoding […]

Here’s my favourite tiny thing of the week: plant spores that leap and dance. Philippe Marmottant of the University of Grenoble, France, and his colleagues used fast microscopy to reveal that horsetail spores have a cunning dispersal method. Each spore consists of a spherical body with four spindly legs. In humid conditions these legs wrap […]

I’ve never been one to get stuck in with DIY, but when I became pregnant with my first child, I felt impelled to decorate the house. Despite my growing bump I was on my knees scrubbing skirting boards and climbing ladders to roller paint the ceiling. With my second pregnancy too, I couldn’t stop tidying […]