19 articles from SUNDAY 7.5.2023

The first step in breaking a toxic pattern is to recognise it for what it is | Diane Young

A therapist or counsellor can help identify the root cause of the pattern and provide tools to manage triggersThe modern mind is a column where experts discuss mental health issues they are seeing in their work“I didn’t sleep well last night … actually, I don’t sleep well most nights”. Ashleigh* apologises for her tardiness as she walks through the door to my office for her psychotherapy...

Are you a mosquito magnet? Help may be at hand

From repellants to app-based mosquito monitoring and a new malaria vaccine, researchers are making important breakthroughs in the fight against the biting insectsThe earliest signs of summer herald my annual metamorphosis – from woman to lifesize pincushion. Whether at home or abroad, when mosquitoes begin their hunt for blood I am reminded, via a blanket of red blotches that have more than once...

A holiday is about more than just a break. It’s a chance to dip a toe into a new version of yourself

If you feel stuck, a trip can put you back in touch with your sense of adventureOn family holidays, my father transformed himself. Perhaps it was the sunny climate, the change of scene or simply the long-awaited break from work, but almost as soon as the plane landed on the runway, his ordinarily reserved personality was discarded like a winter coat. He became sociable and gregarious. There was a...

Gardeners urged to ‘keep it local’ when creating a wildflower meadow

Experts say neighbourhood varieties will suit an area’s pollinators, and that caution is needed when buying generic seed mixes Gardeners hoping to establish a wildflower patch in their gardens should be wary of generic seed mixes and stick to local blooms to best serve wild pollinators, experts have said.Conservationists are urging people to source not just native wildflowers but to find out...

Revealed: modern humans needed three tries – and 12,000 years – to colonise Europe

Homo sapiens forced out Neanderthals between 54,000 and 42,000 years ago, according to controversial new researchIt took three separate waves of modern humans to colonise Europe between 54,000 and 42,000 years ago. That is the key conclusion of scientists who have been studying caves in the Rhone valley where they have discovered evidence that Homo sapiens had to make a trio of determined...

Is Covid really over? WHO’s announcement sounds more like surrender than victory

Although the acute phase of the pandemic may have passed, experts agree that the virus’s effects will remain profoundThe global public emergency caused by Covid-19 may be officially over but the pandemic will still be with us for many years. Nor is it clear that governments have learned sufficiently from the outbreak to be ready to fight off new emerging microbes that could trigger worse...

‘Rimmed with fire’: rare butterfly genus named after Sauron in Lord of the Rings

Newly discovered species with vivid orange and black markings named for evil ruler of Mordor to pique interest in conservationResearchers have uncovered a new genus of butterfly, with distinctive orange wings and dark eyespots. It is a striking appearance that has led the international team to label the genus Saurona, after Sauron, the evil lord of Mordor whose all-seeing fiery eye brought terror...

‘A race it might be impossible to stop’: how worried should we be about AI?

Scientists are warning machine learning will soon outsmart humans – maybe it’s time for us to take noteLast Monday an eminent, elderly British scientist lobbed a grenade into the febrile anthill of researchers and corporations currently obsessed with artificial intelligence or AI (aka, for the most part, a technology called machine learning). The scientist was Geoffrey Hinton, and the...