The Defence Universities Alliance is a bit to co-opt higher education into the wider drive to war — we should resist as earlier generations of scientists did, argue say ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT of SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
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Where Britain’s wasps have gone and why they need your help
This much-maligned insect’s numbers are dramatically down this summer. SEIRIAN SUMNER explains what’s happened to them, and why ecologists are calling for assistance from the public
In the third of a four-part serialisation from her new book No to Nuclear, LINDA PENTZ GUNTER explains how the world had a chance to build an energy system around renewables more than 70 years ago — instead, it chose nuclear
In the fourth and final part of our serialisation from LINDA PENTZ GUNTER’S book No to Nuclear, she asks how anyone can see nuclear as value for money given its constantly ballooning costs
Elon Musk says AI will make work optional. The world of abundance he predicts actually spells the end of the capitalist system, argues FAWZI IBRAHIM
CARLOS MARTINEZ responds to liberal hawk Simon Tisdall’s evidence-free China-bashing and asks whose agenda it really serves
Indian students have fought for the right to education, schooling us all in the process. Comrades from the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) — UK comment on the resistance and its ripples here
I GET twitchy about taking holidays at the end of August, because it’s the only time of year when people (and the media) in Britain seem to want to talk about wasps and I have spent my career trying to change people’s minds about these fascinating insects.
Typically, the British wasp hysteria season peaks around August bank holiday, when we’re squeezing the last alfresco dining out of summer. Inevitably, along comes a yellowjacket wasp or two. The media follow with headlines themed on wasps on the attack. My colleagues and I step in with a defence of wasps, about their important role in ecosystems as pest controllers and pollinators and how their life history helps explain their behaviour.
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Climate extremes are becoming our new normal, says CHLOE BRIMICOMBE
Emergency phone alerts could help Britain respond to rising wildfire risk, but Australia’s experience suggests they work best as part of a broader strategy, write ELLIOT CONVERY-FISHER and KATE PARKINS
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
Rising temperatures and human activity are making life far harder for these vital pollinators. ALEX DITTRICH explains