Two new books investigate why it’s so hard to define life
If everything in the world had to be divided into two bins — one for living things and one for nonliving — the task...
A gargantuan supernova remnant looks 40 times as big as the full moon
A cloud of expanding gas in space is the largest supernova remnant ever seen in the sky, a new study confirms. The Milky Way...
Magellan, Inquisition and Globalisation
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 16 (IPS) – Globalisation’s beginnings are symbolised by Ferdinand Magellan’s near circumnavigation of the world half a millennium ago. But...
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Mar 16 (IPS) – Inequality characterizes the world we live in, predisposing how we act and think. We perceive our existence...
Five Steps to Combat Gender-Based Violence Globally
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Mar 16 (IPS) – The 410 Legal Aid Centers that I manage in Bangladesh for BRAC’s Human Rights and Legal Aid Services...
NEW DELHI, India, Mar 16 (IPS) – Climate change is one of the most pressing issues that the world is collectively facing at the...
BANGKOK, Thailand, Mar 16 (IPS) – The COVID-19 crisis poses an unprecedented threat to development in the Asia-Pacific region that could reverse much of...
Phosphorus for Earth’s earliest life may have been forged by lightning
One key ingredient for life thought to be delivered to Earth by meteorites may have been homemade after all. The phosphorus that went into...
Most of Mars’ missing water may lurk in its crust
An ocean’s worth of water may be lurking in minerals below Mars’ surface, which could help explain why the Red Planet dried up. Once...
Policy Inconsistencies and Poor Research Slow Young Farmers in Africa
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Mar 16 (IPS) – It is not everyday that a young farmer registers success in his enterprise and vows this is what...
Light is hard to block from every direction. This physicist found a way 
Egypt: Fact-checking site’s entire newsroom jailed as assault on press freedom widens 
Nearly 64,000 flee Nigeria for Niger where a humanitarian crisis is deepening 
Ebola: IOM urges wider surveillance beyond formal routes in DR Congo