Staying neutral often feels like the safer option, in workplaces, in public life, in almost any situation where a strong opinion might invite criticism. King Charles III, speaking as Prince of Wales, described the opposite instinct with a self-deprecating joke. “I’m a dangerous person because I mind about things,” he said. He was not describing…

For generations, the history of silk has been told in a fairly straightforward way. Domesticated silkworms emerged in ancient China, silk travelled westward once the Silk Road developed, and the knowledge required to raise silkworms followed the same route. That sequence has shaped both archaeological research and popular history for decades. The story may be…

pc: Study: Elephant-bone tool (NHMUK PV UNREG 4339) from intertidal deposits at the Boxgrove Waterhole Site Half a million years ago, people living in what is now southern England were doing far more than shaping stone into cutting tools. A newly analysed elephant bone from the famous Boxgrove archaeological site suggests they were carefully choosing,…

Former US Chief Medical Advisor Dr Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment during a Republican-led Senate hearing on Wednesday, declining to answer questions about his role in the federal COVID-19 response after being subpoenaed to appear.Fauci, who led the nation’s pandemic response, said he was acting on legal advice and described the decision as difficult….