The (slow) thread collecting all my features published in #CurrentBiology in 2024 starts here. #ProseAndPassion #Science #ScienceWriter #ScienceJournalism #biology #ecology The old thread for 2023 is here https://mastodon.social/@proseandpassion/109660210547152052
my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 1: Yet another climate feature written during the final days of #COP28: On the highway to climate hell https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/01/highway-to-hell.html
#science #ClimateCatastrophe #Dubai #fossilfuels
highway to hell

The first time I wrote something along the lines of we need to stop pumping so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was in 1989 - so that w...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 2: Large herbivores like #elephants #mammoths #mastodons share one big problem: human hunters. New evidence shows even #Neanderthals hunted and butchered elephants, so time for a big picture feature on this.

https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-long-history-of-elephants-suffering.html

#science #conservation #megafauna

the long history of elephants' suffering

I've been going on a few times about how human hunters expanding out of Africa wiped out most of the megafauna on the other continents. (Big...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 3: #groundwater supplies are shrinking around the world due to unsustainable use and #megadrought linked to #ClimateCatastrophe https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/02/running-out-of-groundwater.html

#science #environment #water #sustainability

running out of groundwater

I am rapidly running out of big topics that I have never covered in my CB features, but groundwater was one of them until now. With severe d...

urbanism now and then

I love writing about cities as a biological phenomenon, so I have already covered the evolution of cities, urban ecology, and urban evolutio...

tipping over

Climate tipping points were once a hypothetical risk in a distant future. After humanity spent the first quarter of the new century not sort...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 7: We now know 5 non-human mammals enjoying a long #PostReproductive lifespan - all of them are toothed #whales. Time for a feature on #menopause. https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/04/menopausal-mammals.html #science #evolution #ScienceJournalism #ProseAndPassion #orca #beluga #narwhal #PilotWhale #pseudoOrca
menopausal mammals

I knew about orca females enjoying a post-reproductive lifespan (ie going through menopause), but in recent years the number of non-human ma...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 8: In my features I've warned of the growing #PlasticPollution problem a few times, but does anybody listen? So here's another one on this messy topic. Pegged to the ongoing global negotiations which are at risk of going the way of climate summits, ie nowhere. https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/04/stop-plastic-pollution.html

#science #environment #ScienceJournalism #ProseAndPassion
#plastics #pollution #health

stop plastic pollution

I have written a few features already about the rising tide of plastic waste engulfing our planet. What's new this time is that the micropla...

rivers restored

Today's issue of Current Biology is a special theme issue on ecosystem restoration with lots of articles on various kinds of ecosystems fro...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 10: Ready for the #beaches? this feature is all about #sand. https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/05/all-about-sand.html
#science #environment #coasts
all about sand

Ahead of the (Northern hemisphere) summer holiday season, I've had a look at the problems around the supply of sand both for beaches and for...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 11: with some 70,000 years of human history, #Australia is actually more ancient than Europe.

https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/06/ancient-australia.html
#science #anthropology #migration #sahul #OutOfAfrica

ancient Australia

From a European / Western perspective, we're used to thinking of Australia as a new world that has only recently been discovered and settled...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 12: Value your #vultures and care for your #caracaras, because we will be in trouble when #raptors soar no more. https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/06/care-about-caracaras.html #science #ecology #birds #conservation #EcosystemServices
care about caracaras

Reading up on the neglected group of raptors, the caracaras, I was rather shocked to find a major skeleton in ornithology's closet. A collec...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 13: Too little is known about the effects our #drugs (legal and illegal ones) have on #ecosystems when they escape into the #environment. https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/07/were-drugging-biosphere.html #science #pharmaceutical #pollution #ecology
we're drugging the biosphere

During the plague years I have often mentioned that things like virus fragments can be readily detected in wastewater, and that with the sam...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 14: #Indonesia's new capital in the rainforest of #Borneo highlights the #conservation and #environmental challenges the country faces. https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/07/a-capital-in-jungle.html #science #ClimateCatastrophe #CurrentBiology #ScienceJournalism
a new capital in the jungle

This August, Indonesia is due to inaugurate its new capital, Nusantara, located in a remote site surrounded by the rainforest of Borneo. I t...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 15: I hate the whole #AI hype but when it comes to its #ClimateImpact, there's a topic for me ... https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-ai-tipping-point-is-nigh.html #science #technology #ClimateCatastrophe #ChatGPT #LLM #hype #google #microsoft
the AI tipping point is nigh

I am slightly allergic to the whole AI hype and the tendency to use it for everything regardless of risks and side effects (a hundred years ...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 16: As it's still summer travel season, here's my bit about how #pathogens travel - from the stone age to #Covid, but the main new research I discuss is about intercontinental travel by sail and steam ships.

https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/08/travelling-pathogens.html #science #ecology #disease #travel #history #SailShips #SteamShips

travelling pathogens

When humans travel, they tend to bring their infectious diseases along. With Covid and air travel we have seen that an outbreak can become a...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 17: We had absolutely no #wasps in our #Oxford #garden this summer, so I took this as an excuse to look into their #ecology and #EcosystemServices. https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/09/a-silent-summer.html #science #insects
a silent summer

This summer, I was quite spooked by the total absence of wasps around here, and after I read that they have also been missing elsewhere in t...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 18: As I live half-way between a #Dodo pub and the #Oxford University Museum, I obviously had to write a dodo feature, with the more general theme of #conservation lessons to be learned from #extinction: https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/09/dodo-and-company.html #science #ecology #birds #LewisCarroll #AliceInWonderland
dodo and company

Here in Oxford we feel a special cultural connection to the dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ) - seeing that an important specimen of the extinct s...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 19: #Whales came to dominate the oceans in only 50 million years. Humans nearly wiped them out within a century. The story of their #RiseAndFall: https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/10/a-whale-of-tale.html #science #ecology #evolution #MarineBiology #Cetaceans
a whale of a tale

The rise of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) to become the dominating megafauna of the oceans happened remarkably quickly, within only 50 mil...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 20: the challenge to understand the #biomechanics of #flying, swimming, crawling in long-extinct species such as #pterosaurs. part of a special issue on #physics and #biology

https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/10/flapping-pterosaurs.html #evolution #science

flapping pterosaurs

Today's issue of Current Biology is a special theme issue on physics and biology, so there's lots of exciting stuff there from this particu...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 21: #kelp forests could be a casualty or a saviour in the #ClimateCatastrophe. Up to us, unfortunately.

https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/11/brown-algae-and-blue-carbon.html #science #ecology #MarineBiology #BlueCarbon #CarbonSequestration #environment

brown algae and blue carbon

There is another COP climate summit coming up this week, and to fend off the evil spirits of fossil fuel dependency I've written another cli...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 22: Looking at the fight against #AIDS / #HIV after the recent good news on #prophylactics.
https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/11/good-news.html

#science #medicine #retrovirus #publicHealth #STI

good news

It doesn't happen very often these days, but my latest feature has some very good news to report, so enjoy: Prophylactic progress again...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 23: #aurochs are extinct but also the ancestors of today's #cattle. #AncientDNA study reveals their #PopulationHistory https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/12/aurochs-dead-and-alive.html #science #genome #agriculture #rewilding #ecology #evolution
aurochs dead and alive

My latest feature in Current Biology is about a big beast of the Pleistocene that has been extinct for almost four centuries, but is also pr...

my features published in #CurrentBiology this year, issue 24 (of 24, full set): A #seasonal appreciation of ancient #trees growing in the wild - as opposed to farmed conifers being consumed for #xmas. https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2024/12/lets-celebrate-trees.html #science #ecology #plants #resilience #longevity
let's celebrate trees

My last feature of the year is a seasonal offering with the radical suggestion that we should celebrate old trees growing in their natural e...

that's 2024 done - the new thread for 2025 starts here: https://mastodon.social/@proseandpassion/113782468349225978
@proseandpassion pic locks amazing but link not working for me
@Kaetchi you mean the link to my blog? in which case here's the magic link direct to the article: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1jzSR3QW8S6GaJ
Please wait whilst we redirect you