This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
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Feeling mouldy? Find your network
Are fungi friend or foe? Both, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL — but when they do more harm than good in our homes, we should take a page out of their book and create our own powerful networks
Fungi in the landscaped gardens at the National Trust's property at Stourhead, Wiltshire
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
The FBU is demanding 52 weeks of full pay for women firefighters, highlighting the unique health risks they face — and the continuing need to recruit and retain more women if policies like this are still not in place, writes SEONA HART
Israel continues to operate with impunity in what seems to be a brutal and protracted experiment, while much of the world looks on, says RAMZY BAROUD
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY
With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
A recent Immigration Summit heard from Lord Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. JAYDEE SEAFORTH reports on his message that we need to increase public empathy with desperate people seeking asylum
LAST MONTH, a man in the US named Tyson Bottenus made worldwide news due to an extraordinary illness. What he initially thought was a brain tumour turned out to be a rare fungus that had travelled through his blood, crossed through the blood-brain barrier and took up residence deep inside his skull, where it grew and eventually caused a stroke.
Thanks to medical treatment he is recovering well, but unfortunately has sustained brain damage that, for the moment at least, has significantly changed his life.
This isn’t the first case of fungi infecting living bodies. Cordyceps is a fungus that infects some insects, takes control of their bodies’ extended nervous system and forces them to find a place to die where the fungus’s spores will travel best.
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A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Science has always been mixed up with money and power, but as a decorative facade for megayachts, it risks leaving reality behind altogether, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
A small Japanese trial has reported some positive results for stem cell therapy to treat spinal-cord injuries
Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
