At the Las Matas train station in the town of Las Rozas, just north of the Spanish capital Madrid, life is going on as usual. The sound of a highway can be heard in the background as a train pulls in. On the roundabout in front of the station, a churros vendor is
Ph. An etching by Pietro Fabris of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, where thousands of people continue to live, despite the risk. Wellcome Collection Ralph Hertwig, Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 paved the way for the democratisation of
Nicolas ‘Niko’ Dubreuil, a veteran polar explorer with over three decades of experience in the Arctic, knows first-hand the dangers of navigating the region’s icy landscapes. In 2001, while trekking on an icepack in Greenland, he suffered a severe fall, sustaining major injuries. Instead of being deterred though, the experience left him captivated
Guy Plint examines one of the dinosaur tracks, which is above his head. Annemarie Plint, CC BY-NC-ND Guy Plint, Western University and Charles Helm, Nelson Mandela University Dinosaurs have captured people’s imagination ever since their bones and teeth were first scientifically described in 1822 by geologist and palaeontologist Gideon Mantell in England. Dinosaur
Red, white, or rosé, sparkling or still, dry or fruity, wine is deeply embedded in European culture. But so are attempts to counterfeit good wines. Except that researchers have now created a smart system that could put an end to such transgressions. Countering the counterfeits Counterfeiting spirits and wine costs European businesses €1.3 billion
George Wittemyer, Colorado State University Surveying elephants is hard, risky work. Dedicated biologists have been doing this challenging task across Africa for decades. Systematic surveying started in the late 1960s but has been sporadic, as access to remote areas takes logistical planning, funding and well-trained teams. Surveys can easily be derailed by civil
An international team of researchers is developing a model of Mars’s evolution that could unlock some of its long-held secrets, including whether it once harboured life. François Forget, a space scientist from the Pierre Simon Laplace Institute in France, is the man looking for those answers. He is not a time traveller, but
Central Macedonia, a region on the northern mainland of Greece, is an important producer of food. It generates a quarter of the country’s agricultural output and is the source of much of Greece’s table olives, peaches, wine and dairy products. But this productivity also results in large amounts of agricultural waste. EU-funded researchers
Ph. A loggerhead turtle nesting. Mollie Rickwood, CC BY-NC-ND Mollie Rickwood, University of Exeter; Annette Broderick, University of Exeter, and Robin Snape, University of Exeter Rising global temperatures are a particularly acute threat for the world’s sea turtles. That’s because the temperature of a turtle’s nest controls the sex of their offspring. Coming
The Sun’s distance from Earth allows it to be habitable for life. DrPixel/Moment via Getty Images Daniel Brady Mills, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich; Jason Wright, Penn State, and Jennifer L. Macalady, Penn State A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that