What’s behind the war on cash?
Everything is going digital, even money. But what’s behind the drive to stop us using “dirty cash”?
Science & Technology
Virtuous cycles
Breakthroughs in the use of bacteria are helping us to build a new green economy.
Beef stakes
Climate activists have proposed an end to the livestock industry. But overhauling farming could have unintended consequences.
Dystopia by degrees
As the climate crisis deepens, so will the battle over how to tackle it. Should we expect an increase in violence?
Henrietta Lacks and the fight for genetic justice
The cells of Henrietta Lacks were harvested without her consent and have proved vital to medical research. Now her family is suing.
Deep fakes: the new front in the disinformation wars
New programs are being developed to identify and combat the rise of synthetic video, but this growing threat cannot be confronted with technology alone.
How do we warn future generations about our toxic waste?
With nuclear energy increasingly in favour again, saving our planet may depend on communicating with people 10,000 years from now.
Explosions of brilliant light
What will the most expensive telescope ever built tell us about the origins of the universe?
Revelations in the genomes
Two decades ago it cost $1 billion to sequence a single genome. With the price now slashed, are we closer to understanding our genes?
The tiny bears asleep on the moon
Tardigrades, micro-organisms that can survive extreme conditions, could hold the key to prolonging the shelf-life of protein-based therapeutics.