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South Africa has a tight regime for scientists wanting to “overwinter” in Antarctica. The 13-month assignment to an isolated research base on the top of a cliff edge is, as the environment ministry drily put it, “testing”. Average annual temperatures are -16C but drop much lower during the winter darkness. All applicants are subjected to psychometric analysis “to ensure they are able to cope with the isolation, and can work and live with others in the confined space of the bases”, said the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. “Only candidates who do not have any negative outcomes from all the background evaluations will be considered.” But can humans ever fully prepare for long-duration remote scientific experiments? The crisis currently facing the overwintering crew at the Sanae IV station,…

Remember “Sharpiegate”? Back in September 2019, then-President Trump appeared to alter the path of Hurricane Dorian—at least on paper, with a marker. Craig McLean, who had been at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for nearly 40 years, was the acting chief scientist and head of NOAA Research. Objecting to the controversy contributed to his demotion. He explains what he anticipates for Trump’s second term. DORIAN WAS A nasty hurricane. It took lives in the Caribbean and the Bahamas and was making a move toward the Florida Panhandle. Days out, there was a small chance of tropical storm–force winds in Alabama. The National Weather Service forecasted, correctly, that the storm was going to make a hard right turn and certainly not impact the people of Alabama. But Trump tweets something…

“The more melt, the more stakes you have to collect. I don’t think I could have carried any more stakes. Nearly a third. That’s the amount of ice lost from New Zealand’s glaciers since 2000. Almost 300. That’s the number of individual glaciers that have vanished forever since we started monitoring them regularly about half a century ago. According to a recent global assessment, New Zealand ranks third after the European Alps and the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe, in the proportion of glacial ice lost to rising temperatures. And the glaciers that remain are now melting at an accelerating pace. In early March, I witnessed the changing icescapes of the Southern Alps first hand when I joined glaciologists on their annual snowline survey. Each year, the team flies across the…

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For the last several weeks I have been trying to wrap my mind around this story about the iconic brain surgeon, Allan Hamilton, M.D. Why? Because he’s finally launching his big book, Cerebral Entanglements: How the Brain Shapes Our Public and Private Lives. He’s been working on this one for years, and I know that because stories in the book have appeared in this magazine. What happens is that we talk on the phone, our brains get entangled, and then a feature begins to grow at AZTECA, his famed surgical simulation lab at the University of Arizona. Allan thinks in pictures (he first wanted to become an artist), and he can produce words about as fast as an AI bot. So a few days after our conversation, as many as…

Picture this. It’s 2034, and after a day’s work, you switch on the TV to unwind only to find… nothing. It’s happening quietly, but the impact will be seismic. Worse still, 68% of people don’t even know terrestrial TV is at risk. By the time they do, it could be too late. A new report from the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) highlights the vital role of free-to-air terrestrial TV in providing trusted news, educational content and a shared national experience – especially for vulnerable people. As the UK government considers the long-term future of terrestrial TV beyond 2034, its potential loss threatens to exacerbate digital inequality, undermine public trust and weaken the social fabric of communities. If ministers make the wrong call, the UK’s terrestrial TV service will soon disappear,…