It seems amazing that anyone ever believed in them. In the mid-twentieth-century heyday of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), grainy pictures of flying saucers hovering in the sky were a staple even in respectable magazines such as Time and Life. Volumes were written earnestly detailing the visits of aliens. This novel form of cold war paranoia seemed to seep into the collective psyche on both sides of the Atlantic. Read more
If fame were measured in namesakes, Alexander von Humboldt might reign supreme. The moniker of the brilliant biogeographer, naturalist and explorer graces dozens of species and phenomena, from the hog-nosed skunk Conepatus humboldtii to a sinkhole in Venezuela. Yet the Prussian polymath’s reputation has lagged somewhat behind that of, say, Charles Darwin. Andrea Wulf’s The Invention of Nature went some way towards changing all that. Now this immensely acclaimed biography is burnished anew by winning the Royal Society’s Science Book Prize, sponsored by Inside Investment. Read more
A couple of months into my first reporting job, I wrote the story “Neanderthal speaks out after 30,000 years”. A research team had synthesized the voice of a Neanderthal by inferring the dimensions of the larynxes of three individuals. All they managed was a single vowel – a gruff ‘ee’ – but they used it to claim that Neanderthals could not utter a kind of vowel sound that is common to all human languages. Read more
Two linked exhibitions in Berlin – Mirror Images in Art and Medicine and Smoking Mirror – begin where Narcissus left off. The hero of Greek mythology wasted away gazing transfixed at his own beauty reflected on the surface of a dark pool. He left his name both to the narcissus (daffodil) that sprang up on the banks where he died, and to psychology. Read more
Whatever ‘being human’ means, it seems irrevocably tied to the bestial. In real life we tame, avoid or study animals (think pigs, grizzlies, lab mice). In stories, we freight them with characteristics human, mystical or approximately their own (think the White Rabbit, Moby-Dick, Mrs Tiggywinkle). Beasts are burdened indeed — by human needs, questionings, hopes, dreams, morals and fantasies. Read more
Moving emotional journeys are the stock-in-trade of animation studio Pixar. In their Toy Story trilogy, released in 1995, 1999 and 2010, little Andy’s toys compete for his affections as his family move, threatening to leave them behind. In the 2009 Up, even the opening sequence — a poignant recap of the elderly protagonist’s life story – had audiences blubbing. Read more
Four egg yolk-sized orbs sit on my plate, cradled by translucent spoons. Each sphere is a different colour: red, green, black, white. The server explains that each represents one of the four tastes, salty, sour, sweet and bitter. But which colour goes with which taste? Read more
