Miriam Frankel

London

Science editor @ConversationUK and freelance writer. Author of "Are You Thinking Clearly?" Words The Observer, @newscientist, @BBC_Future, The Guardian.

Articles

Should you ever cut ties with your parents?

1 week ago | bbc.com | Miriam Frankel

Should you ever cut ties with your parents? Getty Images/ BBCEstrangement between parents and their children is surprisingly common – this is what research says about making such a difficult decision. Sarah first cut ties with her mother just days after her 21st birthday. "I was getting really angry," says Sarah, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. She ended the relationship during a furious phone call.
Rocks and racism? How geologists created and perpetuated a narrative of prejudice

2 months ago | msn.com | Miriam Frankel

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
Rocks and racism? How geologists created and perpetuated a narrative of prejudice

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Miriam Frankel

It was at the London Library at St James’s Square, surrounded by the shiny offices of geological extraction companies including BP and Rio Tinto, that Kathryn Yusoff discovered a deep link between geology and racism. It was 2017, and the professor of inhuman geography from Queen Mary University of London was doing research for a book about the history of geology.
The Blogs: Olami Manhattan Took Me To Poland – Day Two

Mar 8, 2025 | blogs.timesofisrael.com | Miriam Frankel

Just a moment ago, I was in Krakow, surrounded by men in suits singing Eshet Chayil, the soft glow of Shabbat candles filling the hotel lobby. Now, I’m in the New York Public Library, staring at the calendar in disbelief, wondering how I returned home a week ago. It feels as though time has played a trick on me; it was only a second ago, wasn’t it? And yet, the dates don’t lie. My week in Europe, though brief, felt like a lifetime.
Olami Manhattan Took Me To Poland – Day Two - Miriam Frankel

Mar 8, 2025 | qoshe.com | Miriam Frankel
The Blogs: Olami Manhattan Took Me to Poland – Day One

Feb 28, 2025 | blogs.timesofisrael.com | Miriam Frankel

Scarred into the Polish soil, the ruins of once-thriving Jewish communities stand as haunting reminders of a tragic genocide and the remarkable strength of a people’s resolve. Polish Jewry, decimated by the horrors of war, lost three million Polish Jews, 90% of the pre-war community, along with families, homes, and centuries-old traditions and artifacts. Yet, despite the brutal attempt to erase their existence, there is one thing the war could never take: the spirit of the Jewish people.
How cosmic stasis may drastically rewrite the history of the universe

Feb 10, 2025 | newscientist.com | Miriam Frankel

Ask someone how the universe began and they will probably reply with those three familiar words: the big bang. But as recently as the 1960s, cosmologists hotly debated this matter. On the other side of the argument to the big bang was the idea of an unchanging “steady state” universe, the density of which was kept the same by continually adding new matter as it expanded.
how science is finding women can have a dark streak too

Feb 2, 2025 | msn.com | Miriam Frankel

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
‘Female narcissism is often misdiagnosed’: how science is finding women can have a dark streak too

Feb 2, 2025 | theguardian.com | Miriam Frankel

Picture a psychopath. Who do you see in your mind’s eye? Chances are it’s a man. And chances are your answer would be similar if you were asked to picture a narcissist. From Charles Manson and Ted Bundy to Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump, most famous people we consider psychopathic or narcissistic are male. That’s even the case for fiction – think Hannibal Lecter, Patrick Bateman or Norman Bates.
Anne Frank, 80 Years After the Liberation of Auschwitz, Emerges in a New Light

Jan 29, 2025 | nysun.com | Miriam Frankel

In a cramped room hidden behind a bookshelf in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, 13-year-old Anne Frank sat at her desk, pen in hand. Outside, the streets echoed with the sounds of aerial battles, mass deportations, and bombings. Her diary would become one of the world’s most famous and best-selling books.