off-beat

Bees help farmers grow the foods people love to eat, everything from apples to almonds. Along with other pollinators – such as flies, butterflies and moths – bees help nearly 80 per cent of flowering plants produce fruit and seeds, which in turn support birds and other wildlife.

A recent study published in the journal Nature Microbiology found that when soil dries out, it can speed up the natural processes that create and spread antibiotic resistance.

New research suggests that many dog owners are not skilled in recognising pain in their pets as they might like to think. This could have significant consequences for the behaviour, health and welfare of our pets.

Vegan leather is not one material, but a broad label that covers everything from plastic coatings to plant-based surfaces, which is why regulators are starting to question vague green claims.

If AI companionship becomes widespread enough to influence those norms, popular ideas about what makes a good partner may prioritise availability and responsiveness, displacing other aspects of love and affection.

The Green Fairy’s fate reminds us that blaming feels righteous in the moment. A century later, absinthe is legal again in France, its dangers largely mythological.

Many aspects of human anatomy are just “good enough” solutions – functional, but far from perfect. Some of the most familiar medical problems and ailments arise directly from these inherited constraints.

One reason why insects have been neglected in conservation is that they are often ignored, if not feared, by many people.

A cup falling to the floor, a car speeding past on the street or a series of lightning strikes – for us humans, an event on the scale of a second is typically a blur, something we can just about register but not in much detail. But animals all process a different amount of visual information in a second.

Inspired by bats, a new ultra-low-power sensing system enables tiny drones to navigate through darkness, smoke and dust, where cameras and other light-based sensors fail.

Muholi uses the non-binary pronouns they/them/their and prefers the term “visual activist” over “artist” or “photographer”. This makes it clear that their work is explicitly political and is intended to bring about change through transforming how Black LGBTIQ+ people are portrayed and perceived. Their photographs are a powerful meditation on Blackness and being. They summon a new and resistant form of visual language to expose and contest racist violence.

Rich in mood and texture, “Tunnel Number 33” unfolds in a landscape of dusk, sleet, and shifting shadows, where the past quietly presses against the present.