Graham Lawton

London

Staff Writer and Columnist at New Scientist

New Scientist writer and columnist, winner of an award & author of Mustn't Grumble: The surprising science of everyday ailments and why we're always a bit ill

Articles

We're finally uncovering fibre's remarkable benefits for body and mind

2 weeks ago | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

Deep inside your lower intestine is a 24/7 dinner party. The trillions of microorganisms that live in your colon are feasting on foodstuffs you ate but failed to digest. Their motives are selfish but they are still doing you a favour, tending to the health of your gut, brain, heart and immune system. Meanwhile, in the background, even-more-indigestible food is quietly drifting past. Even the microbes won’t touch it, but it, too, has a positive effect on your health.
Mike Berners-Lee's solution for the polycrisis may be just too hard

4 weeks ago | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

Pollution like the smoke seen at this garbage dump in Pakistan isÂ part of an ongoing polycrisisARIF ALI/AFP via Getty ImagesA Climate of TruthMike Berners-Lee (Cambridge University Press UK: On sale now US: On sale from 10 April)Mike Berners-LeeÂ admits he is worried about getting bad reviews for his new book, which criticises sections of the UK media for having editorial agendas effectively set by their owners.
How toilet waste is being rebranded as a valuable resource

4 weeks ago | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

Many years ago, I wrote a feature for New Scientist about an innovation in waste-water treatment called urine-separation toilets, which, at the time, looked like becoming a desirable accessory for the eco-conscious. To cut a long story short, the Western habit of flushing urine away using clean water then separating it out again in sewage plants is extremely wasteful.
How a surprising twist on rewilding could help settle our carbon debt

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

In the Țarcu mountains of Romania, a pioneering experiment is changing the atmosphere around rewilding. Starting in 2014, around 100 European bison were gradually reintroduced to the area, having been wiped out by hunting more than 200 years ago. They now number more than 170 and graze over some 48 square kilometres. That is a success story in itself. But there is more to this project than just bringing back the big beasts.
The alarming rise of colorectal cancer diagnoses in people under 50

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

Shortly after my 54th birthday, I received a package. The enclosed instructions told me that next time I emptied my bowels, I should scrape a bit of the stool into a small sample bottle, seal it in a pre-paid envelope and drop it into the post. I did the deed and, a few weeks later, was invited to hospital. My sample contained blood; a colonoscopy was ordered to rule out colorectal cancer. I don’t, thankfully, have colorectal cancer, and a colonoscopy at 54 is a classic initiation into middle age.
A spat over sand eels threatens puffins and other iconic seabirds

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

Last July I visited Bempton Cliffs, a nature reserve on the north-east coast of England managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Throughout the spring and summer, around half a million seabirds nest on the precipitous chalk cliffs, making a cacophonous riot that is one of the most spectacular sights in the nature-denuded UK.
Permafrost mummies are unlocking the secrets of prehistory

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

The ivory hunters knew they had found something special. It was 2020 and they were tunnelling into the banks of the Badyarikha river in Siberia. The permanently frozen soil of the river basin is a rich hunting ground for woolly mammoth tusks, which fetch a pretty price on the Chinese ivory market. Occasionally, however, rarer treasures turn up â more complete remains of mammoths and other long-dead animals. This, however, was on a different planet.
The shocking discovery that our gut microbiome drives ageing

2 months ago | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

As human beings, we are all keepers of a vast menagerie. Every surface of our bodies, inside and out, is teeming with microorganisms. We have microbiomes on our skin, in our mouths and other orifices and β especially β in our intestines. In recent years, we have grown accustomed to thinking of these internal residents as benign, even essential to our health. Our guts are said to be full of “friendly” bacteria and other microorganisms that do us favours in return for us giving them a cosy home.
Rewild the UK with lynx soon? Not a cat in hell’s chance, sadly

2 months ago | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

For the past couple of years, I have had the pleasure of hosting New Scientist‘s rewilding weekender at Coombeshead, a farm in Devon, UK, that is being magnificently returned to nature. At the end of this two-day trip for paying guests, we hold a straw poll on which large mammal the audience would like to see reintroduced to Britain. Both times there has been a hands-down winner: the lynx.
Putting food waste in the bin felt wrong until I learned where it went

Nov 20, 2024 | newscientist.com | Graham Lawton

A few years ago, I spent an interesting if pungent day visiting two of Europe’s most advanced waste processing facilities, a state-of-the-art rubbish dump near Espoo in Finland and a power station in nearby Vantaa. Together, they are playing a pivotal role in greater Helsinki’s push towards a circular economy, ensuring that every scrap of the city’s municipal waste is either recycled or turned into energy or heat, so nothing is sent to landfill.