Rowan Hooper

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Rowan Hooper

In T. H. White’s series of novels The Once and Future King, the wizard Merlyn turns the young Arthur, future king of England, into a variety of animals. As a small fish, Arthur swims in a moat and is terrorised by a stronger pike; as a hawk, Arthur learns to respect the dominant old falcon. In giving him these experiences, Merlyn aims to educate Arthur and make him a good king. By the 2040s, it had become possible, to a…

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Rowan Hooper

We are very proud of our Weekly podcast, which we have been putting out every week for over five years. In that time the podcast has won a number of awards and been listened to in over 160 countries. We love being able to bring science to new audiences, and we love the flexibility, informality and intimacy that conversation brings to science reporting. But it is time to shake things up. We have relaunched and renamed our weekly show. Introducing: The world, the universe and us.

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Rowan Hooper

Is a River Alive? Robert Macfarlane (Penguin Books (UK) W. W. Norton (US, 20 May))Early on in this often beautiful, wild and wildly provocative book, Robert Macfarlane recounts telling his son the title of his project. The boy exclaims that of course a river is alive, so this is going to be a very short book. Macfarlane isn’t so sure, and nor am I. It has been a long time since I have felt so torn over a new piece of writing. No…

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Rowan Hooper

In 2034, the first person landed on Mars. While she didn’t go there physically, she still experienced the planet intimately. She explored an ancient river delta and built a base. She put up a flag (China’s) and conducted a detailed analysis of rock samples. She achieved all this by inhabiting a robot via a sophisticated brain-computer interface. Some people claimed the woman had – in a real sense – been to Mars. Critics said she hadn’t, because her body was always in a lab in Beijing.

2 months ago | newscientist.com | Rowan Hooper

The future of Earth looks bleak, but we have the capacity to change courseShutterstock/Liu zishanThe Decline and Fall of the Human EmpireHenry Gee Pan Macmillan (UK: Available now US: 18 March)We’re doomed, says Henry Gee, doomed! Homo sapiens is reaching a crest, after which our global population size will start to drop.