Philippa Kaur

By cleverly capturing the behaviour of our feline friends, Stray offers a great experience for those who fancy spending time as a cat, says Jacob Aron

Humans

17 August 2022

By Jacob Aron
One of Dead City’s humanoid robots – from the perspective of a catBlueTwelve Studio
Stray
BlueTwelve Studio
PC, PlayStation 4 and 5
MY VIDEO game-playing career is littered with incarnations of the post-apocalypse, a setting that is such a cliché that I have probably explored the ruined wastelands of most US states in various guises. But I have never done it as a cat.
On the face of it, Stray‘s premise – you are a cat trying to escape from an underground city populated by robots – sounds like a … More

Rather than helping, lessons may be encouraging pupils to dwell on negative feelings without the necessary support to address them

Humans

| Comment

17 August 2022

By Lucy Foulkes
Michelle D’urbano
TEENAGERS are experiencing a mental health crisis. I am not just talking about the increase in mental health problems that have been reported in them over the past decade or so. I am talking about what UK schools are being asked to do in response.
Many secondary schools in the UK – which educate those aged 11 up to 18 – now teach mental health skills, such as mindfulness or techniques from cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). In a “universal” approach, these lessons are taught to all students, regardless of their level of need. The idea is to give all teenagers … More

Campsite coding Deerpunk costumes, tacos delivered by drones and a game called “Beerocracy” featured at this year’s ToorCamp for hackers – it was a blast, writes Annalee Newitz

Humans

| Columnist

17 August 2022

By Annalee Newitz
Annalee Newitz
LIGHTS in every colour of the rainbow illuminated the forest. People wearing antlers on their heads wandered through a barrage of soap bubbles that released puffs of dry ice smoke as they popped. In the distance, I could hear the sound of music and video game bleeps. No, it wasn’t a rave, nor had I gone back in time to some kind of Druid ritual. I was on a tiny island off the coast of Washington in the US Pacific north-west, attending a five-day festival for hackers called ToorCamp.
According to security researcher David Hulton, one of the camp’s … More

Expand your plant collection for free by saving seeds this year, storing them over the winter and sowing them next spring, says Clare Wilson

Humans

17 August 2022

By Clare Wilson
GAP Photos/Chris Burrows
GROWING your own plants using seeds saved from the previous year has several benefits. It is free, easy and you already know if these plant varieties grow well in your garden.
You can also branch out, if you have been coveting any of your neighbours’ flowers, by asking them if they could donate a few flower heads once they have set seed. I have acquired some tall ornamental grasses by taking a few seeds from some striking specimens at my local park.
Bear in mind that some hybrid “F1” varieties of fruits and vegetables shouldn’t have their seeds stored. These … More

Feedback explores a shocking Mayan game in Mexico, while discovering the true nature of Amazon and trying to avoid autonomous cars

Humans

17 August 2022

Josie Ford
Bounced out of office
A month after Wimbledon, Feedback’s summer of sport travels to Central America and a claim that one ancient Mayan ball game required some extremely specialist equipment. As if the capital “I”-shaped court used to play this form of pelota weren’t fiendish enough, the ashes of dead rulers were used to make the game’s rubber balls.
At least, that is the suggestion made by Juan Yadeun Angulo, an archaeologist at Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History. An article in Science Alert concludes that Angulo’s physical evidence, from a 1300-year-old crypt in Toniná, Mexico, beneath a … More

From frankincense to cacao and vanilla, Scent: A natural history of fragrance shows how aromatic substances have helped shape human culture

Humans

17 August 2022

By Chris Stokel-Walker
Fragrances from plants such as roses help make established and new perfumesOliver Rossi/Getty Images
Scent: A natural history of fragrance
Elise Vernon Pearlstine
Yale University Press
FOR countless people worldwide, their first inkling that they had covid-19 didn’t come from a test, but from something far more visceral: anosmia, the loss of the ability to smell.
Our sense of smell, and our understanding of it, helps us to navigate the world, protecting us from harm and adding to the joy of living in equal measures. Catching a whiff of mercaptan, the eggy-smelling chemical … More

Kostiantyn Filichkin/Getty Images
Visit
The Science of Psychedelics, and how to apply them to mental health conditions, is a focus for neuroscientist Maria Balaet. Hear her talk at the Lord Ashcroft Building, University of Cambridge, at 7pm BST on 22 August.
Watch
See, a dystopian fantasy set in a future where people have lost their sense of sight, returns for its third and final season. Created by screenwriter Steven Knight and starring Jason Momoa, you can catch it on Apple TV+ from 26 August.
Apple TV
Read
Tomorrow’s Parties, edited by Jonathan Strahan, shows us life in the Anthropocene as climate change bites deeper. … More

Waste water contains a treasure trove of data on our health, well-being and inequality, and can be used to head off epidemics, track pandemics and even spot new designer drugs before their effects show up in the population. But how much information are we willing to flush down the toilet?

Humans

16 August 2022

By Claire Ainsworth
The countless chemicals and pathogens that you flush away end up in your nearest sewage treatment plantAbstract Aerial Art/Getty Images
WHAT’S the largest source of mass moving in and out of a city every day? You think, if it’s a port city, it must be boats – or, you know, maybe if it’s a landlocked city, it’s trains or trucks or cars or planes. No, it’s water. It’s water. There’s so much more water moving in and out of a city any day than there is any kind of cargo. It’s basically pure water coming in. And then the water that leaves has some traces of almost every human activity that’s going on in the city.”
Once Eric Alm is in full flow, it is hard to stop him. But it isn’t hard to understand his enthusiasm. Alm, a biological engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is one of a growing band of researchers turning their attention to the fluid coursing through our sewers. This waste water, as it is known, contains the whispered biochemical confessions of millions of people, and by listening to them, scientists can paint surprisingly detailed pictures of our health, wealth and environment, head off epidemics, track pandemics and even spot new “designer” drugs before their effects show up in the population.
Water treatment plantSuriyapong Thongsawang/Getty Images
The field, called waste water-based epidemiology, not only has the potential to revolutionise public health but also transform our view of sewage from disgusting waste to … More