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Ever since humans walked out of Africa, migration has taken place. However, when the land is already occupied – and the stronger group makes no attempt to treat the other with compassion, tolerance and respect – long-term problems arise. The Indigenous peoples of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, among others, bear witness …

On the subject of acne, rather than lotions or medicines, I find the easiest way to improve skin is to exercise for about 30 minutes non-stop and work up a good sweat. Then sit in a steam room for as long as you can with a bottle of water for rehydration. My skin improves in …

Your feature traces the history of hominid art, but quickly dispatches the creations of the bowerbird as not art. I think it is a mistake to be so dismissive ( 18 November, p 32 and Leader ). On Valentine's Day some years ago, I watched a pair of carrion crows outside my window. The male …

It is sad that you believe science should be used to rule out the possibility of art, writing that "claims that an artefact was intended as a work of art should be treated with caution, considering all alternative possibilities". Wouldn't it be more exciting to consider that something can be both artistic and functional? The …

The rooster that wasn't alarmed by its own reflection in a mirror may not be exhibiting self-awareness so much as "not-other awareness". Any species that drinks from still water will be presented with a natural mirror, and it will need to know that the reflection it sees isn't a foe to be fled from every …

"The secret life of oases" was a terrific insight into Australia's artesian springs and others around the world. Where I live on the coast, it is anything but a desert, yet we have extensive coastal dune fields. Rain here soaks right through to bedrock, spreading and emerging at low points in the dune profile ( …

Blackmore describes three approaches to explaining the so-called "hard problem" of consciousness. There is a fourth: that there is no hard problem at all. Though many people still appear to believe that human brains are in some way qualitatively different from those of other animals, I don't. Isn't a dog or a crow conscious of …

Given the more than 70 per cent reduction in foraminifera shell thickness since 1872 due to ocean acidification, the idea that global temperatures will stop rising in the short term if we manage to get to net zero seems optimistic. These shells are an oceanic carbon sequestration engine that will need alkalinity levels to return …

Graham Lawton wrote about the growing worries that a stable supply of clean water around the world is threatened. The flush toilet was the beginning of the downfall of modern society. To mix human faeces with 4 litres of water a few billion times a day is the most heinous rebuff to nature. Never mind …

The fly ash left after burning coal only contains a small proportion of lithium. If the ash is used for the extraction of this metal, what will happen to the other 99.8 per cent of this waste, which includes arsenic, lead, mercury, radioactive elements and added chemicals used in the extraction? Fly ash is a …