Nature
The Joy of Not Knowing Everything
A degree in economics, maths, physics and bionics Today I learnt why some trees start turning brown during a prolonged heatwave. It turns out that it isn’t an early autumn at all. Under severe heat and drought stress, some trees effectively start shutting down parts of their leaf system. They reduce water loss, chlorophyll breaks down, leaves brown and some are eventually sacrificed altogether. It’s a survival mechanism. I didn’t ...
Water, Water Everywhere. Except Where We Actually Need It
I was speaking to an old mate of mine, Gwylim, last night. He works for the Kennet & Avon Trust, so he knows a thing or two. Britain’s rivers are in trouble. big trouble. We can keep pretending the present system just needs another stern letter from Ofwat, or we can start treating water as the national infrastructure it actually is. There is a peculiar argument that appears whenever anyone suggests taking Britain’s water companies ...
Is Climate Change Supercharging the Jet Stream – and Ruining Our Chances of Proper Winters?
What We Need for a Classic Winter One of the quirks of UK winter is the “blocking high”. that stubborn ridge of high pressure which parks itself over Greenland or Scandinavia and funnels icy Arctic air towards us. When one of these blocks settles in, we get the sort of winter weather people still get misty-eyed about: crisp days, deep frosts, frozen ponds, maybe even some snow that sticks around long enough to matter. Why Blocking ...
Are Autumns Getting Wetter?
I’ll confess something straight away: I love stats. Sad, isn’t it? Some people collect vinyl or matchboxes, others run marathons or still play with Meccano in their 50s. Me? I sit at my iPad cross-referencing rainfall figures from 1930 onwards. It’s not glamorous, but it keeps me off the streets. Anyway, September is shaping up to be the wettest month since January, which got me wondering: are autumns really getting wetter, or am I ...
How Dogs and Humans First Got Together
Scientists and historians love to debate the great mysteries of human civilisation: how the pyramids were built, what Stonehenge was really for, who first ate a carrot, and why we still haven’t learned how to fold a fitted sheet. But perhaps the most important question of all is this: how on earth did humans and dogs first become best friends? Scene One: The First Stare-Off Around 20,000 years ago, give or take a few centuries a pack of ...