Life Does a networked world need a new approach to doing good? The "effective altruism" movement aims to make the most of our generous urges – but it may not have all the answers News
Life Dormouse might be first tree-climbing mammal shown to echolocate Seeing with sound? A rare rodent isn't just blind as a bat: it may navigate like one too. The tree-climbing Vietnamese pygmy dormouse seems to make ultrasonic calls to guide its motion. If that's confirmed, it would be the first arboreal mammal known to use echolocation. Apart from bats, dolphins, whales, rats and shrews – … News
Humans Churchill's lost essay on alien worlds has a message for us all In 1939 Winston Churchill mused about the possibility of exoplanets and life beyond Earth. His words still resonate today, says Rebecca Boyle News
Life Humans in panda suits try to track down bears in the woods WHAT do you mean: "They're not real pandas"? That get-up isn't meant to fool you – it's for the bears in China's Wolong Nature Reserve, which must not get used to human contact. Dressing up like this is designed to keep the pandas wary of people, so they steer clear of the villages and farms … Regulars
Health Plague! How to prepare for the next pandemic Globalisation makes the spread of a worldwide killer disease inevitable. The last Ebola outbreak nearly got out of control, but it showed what we need to do Features
Space Tweet me, I'm about to die in space Artists Cath Le Couteur and Nick Ryan weigh in on the space junk problem in the online Project Adrift – combining film, soundscape and Twitter feeds Culture
Crossword #3 Crossword No3 ACROSS 7 Colourless organic solvent, CH 3 COCH 3 (7) 8 Programming language created by John Backus in 1957 (7) 9 Component whose failure led to the 1986 Challenger disaster (1-4) 10 Henry ___ (1731-1810), scientist who gave his name to a physics laboratory at the University of Cambridge (9) 11 Of flow, … Regulars
Feedback: Witch offers hex appeal for financial wizards Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Regulars