biology
Seeds of hope in the siege of Leningrad
A Russian biologist’s dream of creating the world’s first seed bank is thwarted by Stalin’s paranoia and the Nazi invasion. But the pioneering project remains a potent symbol of hope
What rats can teach us about the dangers of overcrowding
The peculiar career of John Bumpass Calhoun (1917-95), the psychologist, philosopher, economist, mathematician and sociologist who was nominated for the…
Harris Tweed, the miracle fabric
To understand the development of technology, you may be better off studying evolutionary biology rather than, say, computer science. A…
Not everything in the garden is lovely
For as long as we have been human, powerful chemicals in plants have provided us with stimulants, analgesics – and the means of murder
Laurel Hubbard is the beginning of the end of women’s sports
When women’s professional soccer was deemed good enough for our TV screens a couple of years ago, I was watching…
The solving of a biological mystery
DNA is the blueprint that encodes the instructions to make proteins. Proteins are the building blocks and the machines that…
Could the lockdown have side-effects no one has considered?
Is the lockdown causing more harm than good?
Popular medical non-fiction will soon have covered every human body part
Nobody warns you when you start medical school that your career decisions have only just begun. Up to a decade…
Humans are animals, and our extinction is inevitable – but we’re still pretty amazing
Ever since enlivenment of the primordial blob, before thoughts were first verbalised, all nature has always been motivated by a…
Oh brave new gender-fluid world…
Later this year, the Advertising Standards Authority will reveal to the world their list of rules designed to wipe out…
How ‘stress management’ can make your blood pressure soar
‘Stress management’ seems to be perpetually on the rise
Digesting all the facts — without getting bogged down
Funnily enough, after my editor sent me these three books to read, my guts started playing up. Suddenly, food seemed…
Humans are doing democracy wrong. Bees are doing it right
What the hive knows about democracy that humans have yet to learn
Your immune system’s war isn’t Saving Private Ryan — it’s Homeland
Before I read this book, I imagined the immune system as a defensive force, like the Germans on the beaches…
Spectator letters: Why Aids is still a threat, elephants are altruistic, and crime has gone online
Aids is still deadly Sir: Dr Pemberton (‘Life after Aids’, 19 April) subscribes to the now prevalent view that we have…
