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Table of contents

Leaders

Environment

Time is running out for big oil companies to reinvent their business

IT WAS inevitably dubbed "Black Wednesday". But for anyone with an interest in a sustainable future for humanity on the planet — that is, all of us — 26 May was a red-letter day. Strike one was a Dutch court ordering Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell to align itself with the Paris Agreement on climate change …

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Humans

Non-kosher fish eaten in Jerusalem during early days of Judaism

Catfish was being eaten in Jerusalem and surrounding areas even as Judaism was emerging there Non-kosher fish was on the menu in areas that are now part of Israel and Egypt while Judaism was developing in the region and the Hebrew Bible was being written there. The Torah – the first five books of the …

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Life

The first complex cell may have had dozens of nuclei instead of one

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Life

Monkeys can change their accent to communicate with another species

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Physics

Laser pulses travel faster than light without breaking laws of physics

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Environment

Cities like London and Tokyo have their own unique microbiomes

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Health

Hannah Ritchie interview: The woman giving covid-19 data to the world

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Environment

Soil microbe transplant could improve tree growth and remove more CO2

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Technology

Drones may have attacked humans fully autonomously for the first time

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Humans

Stepped platforms in Mesopotamia were the oldest known war memorial

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Humans

Ancient jawbone reveals a 2500-kilometre journey from Sudan to Rome

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Technology

Exoskeleton takes strain off legs to reduce energy needed for walking

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Environment

Climate change to blame for 37 per cent of world’s heat-related deaths

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Physics

Astronomers have created the largest ever map of dark matter

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Health

Did covid-19 come from a lab or an animal? This is how we'll find out

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Humans

The human genome has finally been completely sequenced after 20 years

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Health

The world is struggling to contain the delta variant of coronavirus

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Analysis

Environment

Are plans for a carbon-negative power plant too costly to be worth it?

Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire, UK UK energy firm Drax’s plan to transform a biomass power plant in the north of England into the world’s first carbon-negative power station is receiving strong pushback. By 2027, Drax hopes to retrofit its plant near Selby so it can be used for "bioenergy with carbon capture and …

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Comment

We need to set up an international body to fight fake news

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Environment

This smart shift in pesticide use could let insect populations recover

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Environment

Can the UK recycle plastic without dumping it on other countries?

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Aperture

Life

World's smallest cephalopod gets set to fertilise her own eggs

Photographer Tony Wu Agency Naturepl.com THIS dramatic image of a female northern pygmy squid ( Idiosepius paradoxus ) may make it look like a formidable ocean dweller, but it is in fact a close-up of the world's smallest cephalopod, a minuscule member of a class of molluscs that includes octopuses and cuttlefish . Measuring between …

Regulars

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Features

Health

The mindfulness revolution: A clear-headed look at the evidence

Mindfulness is hailed as a treatment for a vast array of problems and the apps are now hugely popular. But do the claims about its benefits stack up? 51¶¯Âþ investigates

Features

Environment

Why your pension may be destroying the planet – and how to change that

Features

Space

Andrea Ghez interview: How I proved supermassive black holes are real

Features

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Culture

Humans

Drunk review: Could alcohol-induced creativity be key to civilisation?

'Drinking together may help make us more creative Drunk: How we sipped , danced, and stumbled our way to civilization Edward Slingerland Little, Brown Spark SOME years ago, when author Edward Slingerland gave a talk at a Google campus, his hosts ushered him into an impressive room. This is where coders pop in for liquid …

Culture

Life

Anthropomania review: Our love of animals and how we live with them

Culture

Humans

Don't Miss: Awake on Netflix is set in a world where no one can sleep

Culture

Technology

The best logistics games that make supply chains fun (no, really)

Culture

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More

Puzzle #116: Can you figure out all the scores for the 1991 season?

#116 More Soccerdoku Our football league archivist has another challenge on his hands (see Puzzle #104, 13 March ). A second old newspaper report has surfaced, this time from the 1991 season. The table shows how things stood at the end of the season after all teams had played each other once. There were three …

Regulars

Humans

How to make ice cream with no freezer, just ice and salt

Regulars

Tom Gauld: Could avocados be harming your pension?

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Twisteddoodles spots lone scientists in their natural habitat

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Regulars

Humans

The Royal Mail’s ambitious move into three dimensions

Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word