Michael Marshall

Outdated economic theories and a poor grasp of worst-case scenarios are behind our failure to curb carbon emissions, says climate policy expert Simon Sharpe – but it isn't too late to change tack

Why does the anti-vaccine movement hate vaccine researcher Peter J. Hotez? His troubling personal account shows a deep disconnect in society over science, and one that needs addressing with the very best persuasion

Brain regions identified as “language centres” are actually hubs that coordinate the processing of language throughout the brain, argues a controversial new study

When it comes to ancient humans in Asia, we have so many fossils and no consensus on how to make sense of them

Climate change, civil war and international sanctions all contributed to the devastation caused by some of Libya’s worst flooding ever

The quake, which has killed thousands, was unusually large for Morocco and struck a region where most buildings are not earthquake-resilient

New genetic research has reignited the controversy over which type of creature was the first to branch off the evolutionary tree from the common ancestor of all animals

The source of ochre minerals used by Stone Age humans in an Ethiopian cave changed over a 4500-year period, although it is unclear why

Days of mass death on Earth are dramatically captured by Michael Benton in his book, Extinctions. It's well-told and gripping, but real palaeontology afficionados may crave newer stories

Three archaeological sites in South Africa feature impressions that might have been made by ancient footwear, but pinpointing when humans first wore shoes is challenging

An African bird called the greater honeyguide is said to lead honey badgers to beehives. Despite decades of reports, including faked footage, hard evidence has been tough to come by – but it’s more than just a myth

The genome of Ötzi, the 5300-year-old mummified man found in the Alps, was first published in 2012, but a more accurate readout has changed the story of where his ancestors came from

There were at least 361,103 sewage spills into English rivers last year, but there are several things we can do to clean up the mess - as a society and from your own home

As news feeds overflow with videos of raw sewage gushing into UK rivers, the government here needs to step up with tougher regulation and more joined-up thinking

Archaeologists previously believed the Tibetan plateau was one of the last places to be settled by humans or hominins – over the past couple of decades that notion has been slowly but comprehensively blown apart