I write about life sciences, health and the environment. My first book "The Genesis Quest" is about how life on Earth began and is out now
Ancient Mesopotamian clay seals offer clues to the origin of writing
Before Mesopotamian people invented writing, they used cylinder seals to press patterns into wet clay – and some of the symbols used were carried over into proto-writing
The surprisingly simple supernutrient with far-reaching health impacts
Most ingredients touted as the key to better health fail to live up to the hype but fibre bucks this trend, with benefits for the whole body, not just the gut
Do certain foods suppress inflammation and help you live longer?
Recent research shows that anti-inflammatory diets are not as faddish as they might sound, with the power to reduce the risk of heart attacks and some cancers
Iceberg A-68: The story of how a mega-berg transformed the ocean
The world's largest icebergs – which can be larger than entire countries in some cases – break off the Antarctic ice sheet. As they drift and melt in the Southern Ocean, they create a unique environment around them.
Extremely rare Bronze Age wooden tool found in English trench
In a wetland on the south coast of England, archaeologists dug up one of the oldest and most complete wooden tools ever found in Britain, which is around 3500 years old
More evidence that limiting social media won't boost your well-being
People who went from using social media for at least 2 hours a day to just 30 minutes a day reported no improvement to their sleep or emotional well-being
Readers deserve better from popular science books
There is a dirty secret in publishing: most popular science books aren't fact-checked. This needs to change
How the evolution of citrus is inextricably linked with our own
Millions of years ago, our ancestors lost a gene for producing vitamin C and got a taste for sour foods
Why Mount Everest is the world’s tallest mountain
Geologists suggest Mount Everest owes part of its extra height to two ancient rivers that flowed through the Himalayas and merged about 89,000 years ago.
The UK coal-fired power station that became a giant battery
The last coal-fired power station in the UK raises questions about how old fossil fuel infrastructure can be repurposed. One option is to use them to store energy from renewables.
The Burning Earth review: How colonialism and industrialisation fuelled the climate crisis
There can be no victory in a war against nature, says Sunil Amrith in The Burning Earth, a must-read history of our environmental crisis
When did humans leave the trees for the savannah – or did they at all?
Ancient humans are said to have evolved to leave the trees, where our primate ancestors lived, in favour of open grassy savannahs – but we may have this idea wrong
Why fantasy has often handled environmentalism better than science fiction
Science fiction struggles to portray environmental concerns; fantasy brings them to life
Nexus review: Yuval Noah Harari is out of his depth in his new book
The author of Sapiens has turned his attention to the information networks that shape our societies, but when you stop and think about what he's saying, it's obvious
The Earth's deepest living organisms may hold clues to alien life on Mars
To understand the life that might survive deep below Mars' surface, we can look to some of the deepest, and oldest, forms of living organism on our own planet