21 articles from SATURDAY 5.11.2022

Scientist Felix Flicker: ‘Compared with a kung fu fight in public, giving a talk on physics isn’t a problem’

The theoretical physicist and martial arts expert has written a new book that uses magic and wizardry as a portal to engage people with the important but overlooked field of condensed matterFelix Flicker is a theoretical physicist working on the quantum underpinnings of matter. Born in Devon, he studied at Oxford, the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, Canada, and Bristol University, where he...

‘It was like an apocalyptic movie’: 20 climate photographs that changed the world

They are the images that made us sit up and take notice. As world leaders gather for Cop27, these pictures prove that global heating isn’t a distant possibility – it’s already here. Words: Gabrielle SchwarzFor a week in July 2018, a giant 100m-tall iceberg loomed over a tiny village on the west coast of Greenland. Villagers were evacuated, and the world watched in suspense: if a chunk of the...

I have never eaten cucumber, onion – or an egg. Can I cure my extreme food phobias?

I’ve always been a fussy eater. Could an expert show me a life beyond the kids’ menu? Is anyone more reviled than fussy eaters? Exclude the obvious candidates (murderers, estate agents, Piers Morgan) and it seems unlikely. It’s unfortunate that an era in which half the population identify as “foodies” has coincided with one in which the other half are convinced that eating wheat, gluten...

Scientists discover ‘world’s largest’ seagrass forest – by strapping cameras to sharks

New study, carried out using tiger sharks in the Bahamas, extends total known global seagrass coverage by more than 40%Tiger sharks are notoriously fierce. The huge animals, which can grow to more than 16ft, are ruthless predators and scared of absolutely nothing – recent research found that while other shark species fled coastal waters during strong storms, tiger sharks “didn’t even...

Study finds first direct evidence of a link between low serotonin and depression

Exclusive: Findings add weight to view that decreased serotonin response could play an important role in depressionScientists claim to have found the first direct evidence that people with depression have a reduced capacity for releasing serotonin in the brain.The findings from a brain-imaging study reignite a debate within psychiatry over the so-called serotonin hypothesis of depression and...