What the hidden rhythms of orangutan calls can tell us about language – new research: Don Mammoser/Shutterstock In the dense forests of Indonesia, you can hear strange and haunting sounds. At first, these calls may seem like a random collection of noises – but my rhythmic analyses reveal a different story. Those noises are the …
Bharat: why the recent push to change India’s name has a hidden agenda: The invitations to a state dinner to mark India’s hosting of this year’s G20 came not, as you’d expect, from the office of the president of India, but from the “president of Bharat”. This has prompted speculation from observers both at home …
How hidden details in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings are revealed by chemical imaging: XRF study of the painting of Ramesses II. Martinez et al., 2023, PLOS ONE., CC BY-SA The walls of ancient Egyptian tombs can teach us much about the lives of the pharaohs and their entourages. Tomb paintings showed the deceased and their …
How the British Museum’s new exhibition reveals China’s Hidden Century through everyday lives: The face of the British Museum’s big summer show, China’s Hidden Century, is that of an elderly woman wearing jade earrings, dressed in a blue robe with ornate gold embroidery decorating its collar. It is an image painted, we discover in the …
Air pollution is a hidden pandemic in Africa – tips on how to reduce your exposure and help combat it: Children and elderly people are vulnerable to air pollution. Photo by Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP. from www,gettyimages.com Rapid urbanisation in Africa is worsening air pollution levels. There are economic as well as health consequences. Air pollution …
South Africa’s hidden jazz history is being restored album by album: The late Sathima Bea Benjamin, jazz singer and composer, has a track on As-Shams Archive Volume 1. Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images It’s fitting that Johannesburg is among 12 cities featured in the 2023 Unesco International Jazz Day, themed “jazz journey around the world”. The day, …
Joe Biden: slips of the tongue can project our own hidden thoughts, fears and anxieties: Joe Biden is proud of his Irish heritage and they say that he has “the gift of the gaffe”, given how many slips of the tongue he makes (and has been making long before he became president). In various speeches, …
The hidden danger of asbestos in UK schools: ‘I don’t think they realise how much risk it poses to students’: A Department for Education survey suggests more than 80% of state schools in England still have asbestos on their premises. Lucy M Ryan/Shutterstock Being diagnosed came as a complete shock. You do not imagine that …
I went behind the scenes of Penguin’s psychiatric titles – what I found was women’s hidden labour: Retro Clip Art/Shutterstock Penguin Books brought psychiatric ideas to post-war Britain through their inexpensive paperback list. This eclectic list ranged from general introductions to psychiatry and psychotherapy, to discussions of specific problems like depression and anorexia nervosa, and …
University students are hidden targets of county lines drug dealing – new report: 4 PM production / Shutterstock For young adults, university is a period of firsts: their first time living away from home, having to budget their money and going to pubs and nightclubs. For many, it will also be the first time they …
Red kite chicks born during droughts are scarred for life – study exposes hidden threat of climate change to wildlife conservation: Werner Baumgarten/Shutterstock Take a drive down England’s M40 motorway and chances are you’ll see a large bird with a forked tail overhead searching for roadkill: the red kite. The conservation status of this species …
Ancient salamander was hidden inside mystery rock for 50 years – new research: Marmorerpeton Brennan Stokkermans , Author provided In the fairy-tale landscape of the Isle of Skye off the north-west coast of Scotland, the skull of one of the most ancient salamanders ever discovered to date was excavated from Jurassic limestones. But it would …
How a deluge of lockdown volunteers rescued UK’s hidden weather history: Julia Sudnitskaya/Shutterstock When it rains, it pours. Make hay while the sun shines. Save for a rainy day. Come rain or shine. The English language is overflowing with phrases about the weather, especially rain, or the lack of it. Fascination with the weather seems …
What your T-shirt reveals about ‘carbon colonialism’ and the global economy’s vast hidden emissions: Well travelled… Shutterstock Where does your T-shirt come from? It’s a question that apparently can be answered with an awkward neck twist and a glance at the label. But the real answer is way more complex. Even producing a single T-shirt …
Hundreds of millions of microplastic particles could be flowing into UK rivers, hidden in raw sewage: Graiff/Shutterstock Microplastics are everywhere. Snow close to the peak of Mount Everest was found to contain on average 30 microplastic particles per litre. And 11,000m below sea level, in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, an average of 2,200 microplastic …
Listening to the ocean reveals a hidden world – and how we might save it: USFWS Pacific/Flickr, CC BY-NC On summer evenings in the 1980s, the residents of a houseboat community in Sausalito, California would often have trouble sleeping. A bizarre and persistent humming noise would keep them awake, and although they investigated, neither the …
The hidden maths behind our favourite Christmas films: Frank Capra's 1946 film is a much-loved Christmas experience for many. PxHere, CC BY-SA What makes Christmas special to you? Festive experiences tend to include a series of selected elements that influence our sense of nostalgia, triggering good feelings, happy memories and emotional vulnerabilities. It’s just not …
How children are being targeted with hidden ads on social media: Stealth advertising is cropping up in children's social media feeds BearFotos Have you ever accidentally clicked on an advert while scrolling on social media because you didn’t realise that’s what it was? This is what advertisers call “content marketing”. Using funny memes, insider-driven stories …