I can’t really remember what happens after that, but suffice it to say that it’s a coming-of-age novel in which the characters are forced out of their state of arrested development. Charming. Charles ...

This is no hagiography, though. Hawking could be selfish, narrow-minded, arrogant, aggressive and a bully, often taking all the credit for discoveries in which he had played but a part, perhaps ...

It’s one of those days when the reality of academic loneliness hits hard.

Update (17:00 03 Mar): all members of the UK or international scientific community were invited to indicate their support by signing the letter. The opportunity to do so closed at 17:00 UK time on 03 ...

There has been much fuss and flapdoodle about a company called Colossal Biosciences that aims to use the wonders of modern genetic technology to call extinct species back from the other side of the ...

My annual selection of favourites from the photographs I took in the past year is now available on Flickr. Do people still use Flickr? I have broken my usual rule of not including family photos ...

This is the time of year when I am most closely reminded of the cycles of time and their steady acceleration. I am steeped in all the evidence. It is a beautiful autumnal morning, vivid green foliage ...

Elsa Pancirolli: Beasts Before Us Readers with long memories will remember my review of Steve Brusatte’s book The Rise and Reign of Mammals, reviewed here. Pancirolli’s book covers the same ground, ...

The anticipation of Christmas under commercial pressure has also made it harder to sustain the appropriate sense of alert watchfulness. We as a staff team at St Mary’s Hornsey Rise try to sustain our ...

In 2025, as the century closed its first quarter (where has the time gone?) I read (and listened to) 70-ish books, though the precise number rather depends on how one counts things. Mick Herron’s nine ...

This year I read 64 books, the first time since records began (2014) that the number has exceeded my age in years (I am 62). The total might be inflated, though, as some of the books have been ...

Last week I visited Auschwitz. I find myself hesitating to write or say anything because I can’t find the words to convey the horror of the place and, in any case, so much has already been written and ...