A Tinder romance crypto scam took a UK chef's house deposit
Alexandr Gutu put £40,000 of his £42,000 deposit into a fake crypto account. A match who moves the chat off the dating app is the first warning sign.
kind archive
Explainer.
Every explainer in the edition.
Sandel's Justice was the first Harvard course put online free
The lectures reached tens of millions of viewers. Critics called the edX version, JusticeX, old footage with quizzes, no better than assigning a book.
Webb's bigger mirror catches light too faint for Hubble
Webb's 6.5-metre mirror and infrared cameras see light Hubble could not. It found galaxies near Milky Way size sooner than standard models allow.
What your body does overnight, and what a short night costs
Overnight your heart slows, hormones pulse and memories settle. Too little sleep is linked to more hunger, more colds and less clear thinking.
A V&A exhibition shows what accessible design means
The V&A shows a vibrating harness for deaf gig-goers and a font from protest placards. A US advocate says cities should consult disabled people early.
The most common sleeping position isn't the best for everyone
Side sleeping is the most common position and wins on average. Snoring and sleep apnoea favour the side, while back or neck pain often eases on the back.
Your UK pension moves abroad with you, but its rises may not
A UK pension keeps paying if you move abroad. The State Pension rises each year only if your new country is on a GOV.UK list, and tax rules change too.
Home loans become bonds, and the bank picks which ones go in
A mortgage-backed security pools home loans into one bond. US bonds mostly pass income straight through, while the EU counts only bundles cut into risk tiers.
Nigeria built Abuja to escape the politics of Lagos
Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to Abuja, chosen as neutral ground. About 300,000 people lived there, and many evicted families still await compensation.
Gulf Stream explains less of Europe's mild winters than thought
Climate models without the Gulf Stream still leave Europe milder than Canada. Atmospheric currents and air pressure across the Atlantic also play a part.
Ethiopia finished its Nile dam, but Egypt still has no deal
Ethiopia launched its Nile dam in 2025 with no deal on running it. Egypt cites 1929 and 1959 treaties giving it a Nile veto, which Ethiopia never signed.
Ecuador gave nature legal rights, and its courts enforce them
Since 2008, Ecuador's constitution has given nature the right to exist. Judges have used it to block mines in the Los Cedros cloud forest and a frog's valley.
The ozone hole that took the world two years to answer
Scientists confirmed an ozone hole above Antarctica in 1985 and linked it to CFCs. In 1987, nations signed the Montreal Protocol to cut them.
The eclipse Thales may have predicted, and what came next
Thales is said to have predicted the 585 BC eclipse that stopped a war. Anaximander then tested and improved his ideas, making knowledge a thing to check.
How AlphaFold changed protein structure prediction
AlphaFold predicts a protein's shape in days rather than years of lab work. It still cannot show how a protein changes over time or behaves inside a cell.
England's regulator says some degree algorithms inflate Firsts
England's Office for Students says two degree algorithm practices inflate Firsts: awarding the best of several results, and dropping a student's lowest marks.
BRAC's schools in Bangladesh target different villages
Bangladesh's BRAC runs one-room schools in poor areas. A 2016 study found it avoids places that lack public infrastructure or have high female illiteracy.
Amsterdam's white bicycles, and the idea that outlived them
In 1965 Dutch activists left free white bikes on Amsterdam's streets. Hundreds of cities now run bike-share schemes, but Amsterdam never took one up.
Water puts out wood fires but makes oil fires worse
A water extinguisher works on wood because it cools the fuel. On burning oil, the same water splits the oil into droplets and makes the fire worse.
Two scholars needed a year to rebuild one Dead Sea scroll
Searches of 11 caves yielded around 900 Dead Sea Scrolls, mostly fragments. Rebuilding is slow, and a neural network has told two scribes apart.
Why a blast furnace makes iron, not steel
A blast furnace strips oxygen from iron ore to make pig iron, which carries too much carbon to be steel until a second furnace treats it.
Lake Chad has lost nine-tenths of its water since the 1960s
Sahel drought and rising irrigation demand cut Lake Chad to a tenth of its 1960s size. A two-year study found the shrinking stopped decades ago.
British rule spread left-hand driving to a third of the world
Britain kept the horseman's habit of riding on the left, then exported it through empire, while Napoleon's conquests pushed the continent right.
Finland has 3.3 million saunas for 5.6 million people
The sauna is thought to date back 10,000 years, to a heated pit. It became a place to cook, tend the sick and give birth.