Humans

From working out a dead person’s last meal to the possible poisoning of the Buddha, a new book from David J. Gibson has some great tales about how plants help solve crimes – and are used to commit them

Humans

31 August 2022

By Kate Douglas

Forensic botany can be a key witness in cases of murder or rapemladenbalinovac/Getty Images
Planting Clues: How plants solve crimesDavid J. Gibson (Oxford University Press)

THEY called him the Sherlock Holmes of France – and, in fact, his antics did inspire the novelist Arthur Conan Doyle.

When Edmond Locard established his forensic science lab in 1912, the world had never seen anything like it. The place wasn’t much to look at – cramped quarters on the fourth floor of the Palais de Justice in Lyon – but there Locard set about laying … More

New Scientist’s weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn’t miss

Humans

31 August 2022

Ast Freelancer/Alamy
Visit
The Science of Middle Earth is a live talk, based on the eponymous book, that explores the role of science in the writing of J. R. R. Tolkien. Take an unexpected journey to the Royal Institution in London at 7pm BST on 8 September.

Read
Sweet in Tooth and Claw is a new attempt to rebalance our view of evolution. Author Kristin Ohlson argues that, despite appearances, cooperation plays as big a role in survival and adaptation as competition. On sale from 8 September.

Read
Seasons of Storm and Wonder by nature writer … More

Giving a TED talk wasn’t easy, but I wanted to make sure my audience came away with a better understanding of dark matter, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Humans

| Columnist

31 August 2022

By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein speaks at SESSION 5 at TED2022Gilberto Tadday/TED
TED talks are increasingly ubiquitous in pop culture. TED’s motto is “ideas worth spreading” and it has become famous for accessible, pristinely produced 10 to 15-minute presentations on big ideas.
Of course, this makes them a prime target for satire. Sometimes this will take the form of a short, tweeted statement, such as “Black cats are the best cats!”, followed by the note: “Thank you for coming to my TED talk!” I have definitely been an active participant in this satirical TED talk … More

Gaia Vince’s new book, Nomad Century: How to survive the climate upheaval, argues that mass migration caused by Earth’s climate crisis could be turned into a plus. Could her plan work?

Humans

31 August 2022

By James McConnachie
Megacities in the near future could be built on vast swathes of Russia, Canada and ScandinaviaAndriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images
Nomad CenturyGaia Vince (Allen Lane)
GAIA VINCE is something of a star in climate science writing. Her debut, Adventures in the Anthropocene, was a compelling blend of climate science reporting and travelogue. Transcendence, her second book, sought to explain human evolution in ambitious “big history” terms – think Yuval Noah Harari meets Matt Ridley.
Her latest, Nomad Century: How to survive the climate upheaval, offers more big history, though it tackles the future. Vince … More

Five people in recovery from psychosis guide artist Marcus Coates as he recreates aspects of their experience in this series of disorienting and sometimes very frightening short films, finds Simon Ings

Humans

31 August 2022

By Simon Ings
Recreating experiences of psychosis leads Marcus Coates to dark placesArtangel/Marcus Coates
The Directors
Five short films by Marcus Coates
At venues in London from 4 September to 30 October
IN A flat in a social housing block in London’s Pimlico, artist Marcus Coates is being variously nudged, bullied and shocked out of his sense of what is real.
Controlling the process is Lucy Dempster, a teenager in recovery from psychosis. In his ear, Coates hears Dempster prompt him in how to behave, when to sit, what to touch and what to think … More

Taken from Anna EscardÓ’s book Science Illustration: A history of visual knowledge from the 15th century to today, these images range from Galileo’s watercolours to a sketch from Einstein’s notebook

Humans

24 August 2022

By Gege Li
TASCHEN
THESE seminal scientific images, taken from the new book Science Illustration: A history of visual knowledge from the 15th century to today by Anna EscardÓ (published by Taschen), are more than just a treat for the eyes.
The lateral view of the human brain, shown above, is taken from French physician and anatomist Jean-Baptiste Marc Bourgery’s Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery. First published in 1831, this textbook is known as the most comprehensive ever produced on human anatomy.Advertisement
By courtesy of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBACT), Central National Library of Florence, Ban of Reproduction; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; By courtesy of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MiBACT), Central National Library of Florence, Ban of Reproduction
The three images above show, from left to right: nerve synapses called the calyces of Held, drawn in 1934 by Santiago RamÓn y Cajal, whose neuron doctrine showed that the nervous system isn’t continuous, but is made from discrete cells; Albert Einstein’s 1905 sketch of a puzzle game from his relativity notebook; and watercolour illustrations of the moon by Galileo Galilei, based on observations made with a telescope he constructed in 1609 that was powerful enough to examine objects in the night sky.
NASA/T. Benesch, J. Carns
Shown above is NASA’s 2012 image of two “doughnuts” of charged particles, or plasma, surrounding Earth, an example of how computer graphics have created more precise and realistic depictions of invisible phenomena. These rings are called Van Allen radiation belts. NASA launched two probes in 2012 to better understand these regions and space weather more widely.
“Scientific illustrations allow the conveyance… of complex scientific concepts,” says EscardÓ. “Even today… it is still necessary to use illustration as a tool to capture images that can only be made through this medium.”

More on these topics: More

Morfydd Clark (Galadriel)Amazon Studios
Watch
The Rings of Power takes us back to J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, where Morfydd Clark (above) plays a younger (but still ancient) Galadriel in Amazon’s bid to tell Sauron’s origin story. On Prime Video from 2am BST on 2 September.
Read
Taxi from Another Planet records the unlikely conversations between astrobiologist Charles Cockell and taxi drivers about aliens and space exploration. So is Mars our plan B? Will we understand aliens? And what if we are alone? On sale from 30 August.

… More

Matthew Cobb’s latest book is a disturbing history of genetic engineering, which asks whether it is worth the money – or the risk

Humans

24 August 2022

By Michael Marshall
Gene editing, exemplified by CRISPR technology, has elicited both hopes and fearsELLA MARU STUDIO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
The Genetic Age
Matthew Cobb
Profile Books
FOR more than 50 years, biologists have been genetically engineering organisms in increasingly precise ways. From the early, crude methods of the 1960s and 1970s, to the modern “gene editing” exemplified by CRISPR technology, genetic engineering has elicited great hopes and terrifying fears.
In his disturbing and readable new book The Genetic Age: Our perilous quest to edit life, biologist and science historian Matthew Cobb tells the story of this field. … More