The secrets of sewers

The weaker sex? The fairer sex? The female body has often been viewed as less strong and less powerful than that of men. Datshiane Navanayagam meets two female scientists who are challenging that assumption. They reveal the ways in which women’s bodies actually come out on top.St ...  Show more

Statues in parks and city centres are meant to celebrate history and inspire for the future. But it's thought that in nearly every country in the world, women only make up 2-3% of the public statues. Datshiane Navanayagam talks to sculptors from the US and Nigeria who are working ...  Show more

Most of us don’t like to dwell on our toilet habits, but this week Crowdscience has gone down the drain to discover what wastewater can tell us about our health.

It’s been more than a year since scientists across the globe started to track the spread of Covid-19, with he ...

Ruth lifts the lid on the surprising history of toilets. A cesspit proves deadly for a noble assembly in 12th-century Germany. Pigs form an unlikely part of the sewage system in ancient China. And the world’s first flushing toilet is invented… four and a half thousand years ago… ...  Show more

"Everybody pees and poops — and we know that urine and stool contain a rich source of information on our health," says data detective Newsha Ghaeli. Exploring the growing field of wastewater epidemiology, she shows how studying sewage can (anonymously) reveal a lot about the coll ...  Show more

Happy World Toilet Day! It is that day of the year when we all need to overcome our embarrassment and discuss what is normally a taboo topic. Hundreds of millions of people still have no access to a toilet, putting them at risk of disease, sexual assault and public humiliation.Ta ...  Show more