Bassel / Joi Ito / CC BY As of today, Creative Commons Syria lead Bassel Khartabil has been in prison for 1000 days. Today, we take a moment to honor Bassel and his contributions to Creative Commons. And we stand with our peers in the free software and free culture communities in demanding that he…

Account of the new inventedPennsylvania fire-placesBenjamin Franklin / Public Domain I’m very excited to be speaking at South by Southwest tomorrow along with Scott Belsky of Behance, Sofya Polyakov of The Noun Project, and Eric Stover of Autodesk. Each speaker represents a community of designers that use open content or licenses in some way. I’m…

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Boundless, the company that builds on existing open educational resources to provide free alternatives to traditionally costly college textbooks, has released 18 open textbooks under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA), the same license used by Wikipedia. Schools, students and the general public are free to share and remix these textbooks under this license. The 18…

Open repositories were created to enhance access and visibility of scholarly publications, driven by open science ideals emphasising transparency and accessibility. However, they lack mechanisms to u....

I am old enough to remember when olfactory receptors were discovered, and have written about them a fair few times since then (heck I even have a tag for that). In the new developments in the smell field last year I really liked the way that a clever combination of old and new may provide a breakthrough. Smell has become ridiculously complex and fragile during the evolution of tetrapods (ie since our ancestors stopped being fish and started to grow legs to walk around on land and sniff the air). Now researchers have gone back to reconstruct the simpler and more robust olfactory receptors of early tetrapods, and based on structures obtained for these, it may become easier to predict (eg with alpha fold) and study structures of the receptors we have now. It's all explained with a bit more detail in my latest feature which is out now: **Chemical communicators** Current Biology Volume 35, Issue 2, 20 January 2025, Pages R45-R47 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2025. The thread for 2024 is here . In Western culture, the sense of smell is much less valued than vision and hearing. (Photo: vikjam/Flickr (CC BY 2.0).)

My last feature of the year is a seasonal offering with the radical suggestion that we should celebrate old trees growing in their natural environment, rather than murder millions of conifers for our festivities. Happy holidays to all whatever you're celebrating. **Reasons to worship ancient trees** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 24, 16 December 2024, Pages R1203-R1205 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . Many millions of Christmas trees are grown in plantations for seasonal consumption. (Photo: Jeanne Menjoulet/Flickr (CC BY 2.0).)

My latest feature in Current Biology is about a big beast of the Pleistocene that has been extinct for almost four centuries, but is also present in the genomes of current livestock: the aurochs. A large scale study of ancient genomes has revealed the population history of the Eurasian species from which today's domestic cattle descends, and based on this wealth of information, the chances are improving to recreate an aurochs-like bovine that could serve the ecosystem services of the defunct species. **Big bovines lost and reborn** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 23, 2 December 2024, Pages R1159-R1161 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . Cave art at Lascaux, shown here, depicts the aurochs among other large mammals present across Europe in the Pleistocene. (Photo: JoJan/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).)

There is another COP climate summit coming up this week, and to fend off the evil spirits of fossil fuel dependency I've written another climate related feature to appear just ahead of the event. So delegates have something to read when they get bored. This time it's about kelp both as a casualty and as a potential saviour in the climate catastrophe. I'm afraid the choice between these two paths rests very much with us (ie humanity). So judging on current performance in global affairs, not much hope there. Anyhow, the feature is out now: **Brown algae and blue carbon** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 21, 4 November 2024, Pages R1059-R1061 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . Kelps can capture and sequester carbon on a scale that is significant for climate mitigation. (Photo: freddy an/Pixabay.)

Today's issue of Current Biology is a special theme issue on physics and biology, so there's lots of exciting stuff there from this particular interdisciplinary intersection. My contribution looks at the biomechanics of animals of the deep past, including one of the first species to crawl around on the sea floor as well as the very impressive pterosaurs, which were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight. As some pterosaurs grew to sizes much larger than today's biggest flying birds, researchers have some explaining to do here. **Modelling moves** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 20, 21 October 2024, Pages R947-R950 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . Investigations of the bone structure of different pterosaur species suggest some evolved to meet the mechanical demands of soaring flight, whereas others were optimised for flapping. (Image: © Terryl Whitlatch.)

The rise of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) to become the dominating megafauna of the oceans happened remarkably quickly, within only 50 million years since some sort of hippopotamus-like species took the plunge to go fully aquatic. Their demise, which very nearly might have led to the extinction of a number of species, happened even more rapidly, within less than a century. A couple of recent studies have enlightened us on the rise of whales, and ongoing news regarding whaling remind us of their entirely human-made fall, so I combined these two to the feature called: **The rise and fall of whales** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 19, 7 October 2024, Pages R877-R879 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . Baleen whales like this humpback typically feed on krill. (Photo: Admitter/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0).)

Here in Oxford we feel a special cultural connection to the dodo (_Raphus cucullatus_) - seeing that an important specimen of the extinct species is housed in the University Museum, where it inspired Lewis Carroll to assign it a small role in Alice's adventures in wonderland, which ironically secured its immortality. Witness the pub down the road from me which is run by the Dodo Pub Co. At this year's Alice Day (the Saturday closest to July 4, the day when the story was first told), there was an excellent talk about the museum's specimen, and soon after a paper came out evaluating the entirety of the scientific literature on the dodo and on its relative the equally extinct Rodrigues solitaire (_Pezophaps solitaria_). All of which clearly indicated that I needed to write a dodo-themed feature. The more general question I have tried to address is what the study of extinct species can teach us for the conservation of those that are endangered but still alive. The feature is out now: **The way of the dodo** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 18, 23 September 2024, Pages R837-R839 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . A life-sized dodo sculpture by palaeoartist Karen Fawcett, created on the basis of the most recent scientific investigations into its anatomy. (Photo and sculpture © Karen Fawcett.)

When humans travel, they tend to bring their infectious diseases along. With Covid and air travel we have seen that an outbreak can become a global pandemic within weeks. With historic, slower mode of travels, the situation is more complex. Consider a sailship going half way round the world - by the time it reaches the destination, the pathogen may have run out of hosts to infect and thus the disease may have died out without any intervention. I spotted a paper applying the tools of ecological theory to the intercontinental transfer of pathogens in the times of sail and steam and found that topic really fascinating, so I mixed in a bit of Covid and air travel and some pre-historic travellers to widen the scope and made it my latest feature which is out now. **Travelling pathogens** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 16, 19 August 2024, Pages R747-R749 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . This painting by Jacob Knijff (1639–1681) purportedly shows “Ships, Galleys and Other Vessels off an Italian Port”, although the location could not be identified and the scene is not thought to depict a specific event. (Image: Jacob Knijff/Wikimedia Commons.)

I am slightly allergic to the whole AI hype and the tendency to use it for everything regardless of risks and side effects (a hundred years ago it was radium). So I successfully avoided writing about it, but recently the news about new data centres for AI and their exorbitant carbon footprint piled up and that at least is an angle worth reporting, I thought. So here goes, entirely written by my own two hands, no AI involved: **The artificial intelligence tipping point** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 15, 5 August 2024, Pages R709-R711 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . The rapid expansion of data centre facilities built to serve the demand of AI applications is at risk of endangering energy supplies and climate policies. (Photo: Rawpixel.com.) other recent (anti) AI news published after I submitted my feature: * Ed Newton-Rex: Robots sacked, screenings shut down: a new movement of luddites is rising up against AI * VICTOR TANGERMANN STUDY FINDS CONSUMERS ARE ACTIVELY TURNED OFF BY PRODUCTS THAT USE AI * AI models collapse when trained on recursively generated data research paper in Nature (open access)

This August, Indonesia is due to inaugurate its new capital, Nusantara, located in a remote site surrounded by the rainforest of Borneo. I took this as an opportunity to look more closely at the conservation and climate challenges the country is facing. The resulting feature is out today: **From Jakarta to the jungle** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 14, 22 July 2024, Pages R663-R665 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . President Joko Widodo and others planting meranti tembaga (Shorea leprosula) trees in the new capital city of Indonesia, Nusantara. (Photo: BPMI President’s Secretariat/Muchlis Jr.)

Reading up on the neglected group of raptors, the caracaras, I was rather shocked to find a major skeleton in ornithology's closet. A collector of museum specimens who has several species named after him likely killed the last ten or so individuals of the Guadalupe caracara (Caracara lutosa). So here we have a species not just killed off by humans in general, but by one human specifically. Make that two species, as the bird also carried a parasite not known to use any other hosts. The important point here is of course the lack of information - Rollo Beck had assumed that the species was still abundant, simply because he very quickly found the group which he then slaughtered. Lack of knowledge and understanding of the important ecosystem function of the caracaras and other raptors and scavengers is also what previously drove that species to the brink of extinction and is still endangering many others today. So the feature is mainly a call to all humans to support and appreciate their local raptors, including those that have a shady reputation, like vultures and caracaras. **When raptors soar no more** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 12, 17 June 2024, Pages R553-R555 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . The striated caracara (Phalcoboenus australis) has been described as inquisitive and fearless by Charles Darwin and other visitors to the islands of the South Atlantic. (Photo: kuhnmi/Flickr (CC BY 2.0 Deed).)

From a European / Western perspective, we're used to thinking of Australia as a new world that has only recently been discovered and settled by our heroic ancestors. Ironically, however, the out of Africa emigration of modern humans that eventually spread around the world appears to have reached Australia a lot earlier than Europe, never mind the Americas. We still know far too little about the 70,000 years of human history in Australia and the larger landmass of Sahul which also comprised Papua New Guinea and Tasmania. Recent research, however, has yielded insights into likely scenarios how the migration into Sahul may have fitted with the changes of environmental conditions. For the later stages of Australia's hidden history, genetic and linguistic evidence are now coming together to reveal a coherent story. I've rounded up some of these studies in my latest feature which is out now: **Ancient Australia** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 11, 03 June 2024, Pages R473-R475 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . Aboriginal rock art created by the Wunambal People in the caves at Wary Bay, Bigge Island, Kimberley, Western Australia. The painting shows a Wandjina figure representing a cloud and rain spirit. (Photo: John Benwell/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0 Deed).)

Ahead of the (Northern hemisphere) summer holiday season, I've had a look at the problems around the supply of sand both for beaches and for the concrete infrastructure growing alongside them. The resulting feature is out now: **Trouble on the beaches** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 10, 20 May 2024, Pages R473-R475 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . Sandy beaches popular with many millions of holiday makers may look like a permanent natural feature, but many of them need replenishing with sand transfers. (Photo: maczopikczu/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0 Deed).)

I have written a few features already about the rising tide of plastic waste engulfing our planet. What's new this time is that the microplastics have actually arrived in our bodies and are causing harm to humans not just the environment, and that a global effort is underway to do something about it. So let's hope that this will be a success story like the Montreal protocol, not a 30-year tragedy like the climate summits. The feature is out now: **Can we end plastic pollution?** Current Biology Volume 34, Issue 8, 22 April 2024, Pages R301-R303 FREE access to full text and PDF download See also my Mastodon thread where I highlighted all CB features of 2024. The thread for 2023 is here . Microplastics are now ubiquitous. They have entered the food chain and thus the human body, where they may increase disease risks. (Photo: The 5 Gyres Institute (CC BY 4.0 Deed).)