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1. How parasites and bacteria could be changing the way you think and feel

   From losing inhibitions to dementia – Lecturer in Genetics Dr Robbie Rae explores the role small critters play in a range of illnesses and behaviours

2. The welcome rise and worrying fall in covert investigation

   Covert techniques and specialist intelligence never appear to be far from the headlines - so why are they on the decline?

3. How chimp DNA techniques turned us into jungle detectives

   Wild chimpanzees are hard to find, but their DNA – left-behind genetic traces – is opening up a new way of studying them, write experts Alexander Piel and Fiona Stewart

4. Knife crime and gangs: how a decade of bad policy left deprived young people without real choice

   England’s dramatic rise in gang-related knife crime has been called a “disease” by the UK home secretary, Sajid Javid, and amid the daily drama of Brexit the prime minister, Theresa May, has called a summit of 100 experts to Downing Street to discuss the issue.

5. Prehistoric people started to spread domesticated bananas across the world 6,000 years ago

   One of the most widely grown, traded and eaten of all the crops, bananas were once a prized exotic novelty, but are now a staple in many country’s supermarkets – Prof Chris Hunt and Dr Rathnasiri Premathilake investigate

6. Footprint fossils suggest lizards have been running on two feet for 110 million years

   Bipedal movement has existed in modern reptiles for much longer than we previously knew, writes Dr Peter Falkingham

7. Nepal’s menstrual huts: what can be done about this practice of confining women to cow sheds?

   Despite being illegal, chhaupadi, the practice of exiling menstruating women and girls from their home – often to a cow shed – is still practised in some areas of Western Nepal. Chhaupadi is an extreme example of the stigmas and restrictions around menstruation that exist not only in Nepal, but also globally.

8. How we can use light to fight bacteria

   This research could provide an answer to some of the problems posed by antibiotic resistance