https://www.scmp.com/rss/303578/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com My family holidays in France are synonymous with one thing: bread. But this year, as everyone else sits down to their croissants and baguettes, my plate is bare. Before even my first sip of coffee, I have to take a long, slow inhalation through a handheld device resembling a sleek electronic cigarette, hold my breath for 10 seconds, then exhale through the mouthpiece. Instantly, an app on my phone delivers the verdict as a score from one to five. Today, it is a one, and I am elated. For the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3201017/how-lose-weight-hacking-your-metabolism-device-could-help-your-body-burn-fat-and-carbs-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3201017/how-lose-weight-hacking-your-metabolism-device-could-help-your-body-burn-fat-and-carbs-more?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Nov 2022 23:15:13 +0000 Hong Kong, 1935: a young palaeontologist picks his way through the backstreets, ducking in and out of apothecary shops. He's looking for dragon teeth, the Chinese name for old animal teeth used in traditional medicines. In a dusty drawer of trinkets, his eyes fall on a large molar unlike that of any living animal, and he instantly knows his search is over. The tooth belongs not to a dragon but an ape, and if its teeth are anything to go by, it was huge. So begins the story of the discovery of a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1975412/king-kong-hong-kong-how-giant-ape-fossil-was-found-1930s?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1975412/king-kong-hong-kong-how-giant-ape-fossil-was-found-1930s?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Jun 2016 04:30:00 +0000 The more we look at the animals we share our lives with, the more signs of intelligence crop up. Take Moses the red-footed tortoise. When Anna Wilkinson, an animal cognition researcher at the University of Lincoln, in Britain, put Moses into a maze, the notorious plodder surprised everyone. He not only performed as well as any rat but also altered his navigation strategy when the situation changed - something beyond rats. Tortoises, it seems, are anything but slow. But we humans tend to be most... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1898326/does-your-pet-care-about-you-probably-not-heres-why?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1898326/does-your-pet-care-about-you-probably-not-heres-why?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Jan 2016 13:00:30 +0000 I first arrived in Beijing in 1984. The winter was bitterly cold. We routinely wore three pairs of long johns under our jeans, tops and jumpers, then added a bulky overcoat to go outdoors. What meagre heating we had was on for only four months of the year, even though Beijing hovered below freezing for almost six. It was also dark. One of my students cheerfully informed me it was "Save electricity Tuesday", which was always followed by "Save electricity Friday". These were rolling blackouts,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1891794/how-china-worlds-largest-polluter-taking-climate-change?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1891794/how-china-worlds-largest-polluter-taking-climate-change?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Dec 2015 12:20:31 +0000 As I sit, trying to concentrate, my toes are being gently nibbled. It's my dog, Jango, an intelligent working breed, and he's telling me he is bored. I know from experience that if I don't take him out right now, or at least find him a toy, he will either pull my socks off and run away with them or start barking like a beast possessed. His cousins in the wild don't seem to suffer the same problem. Coyotes spend 90 per cent of their time apparently doing nothing, but never seem to get fed up,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1860694/five-types-boredom-why-they-might-be-good-us-and-test?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1860694/five-types-boredom-why-they-might-be-good-us-and-test?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:00:15 +0000 Next month, the first conference dedicated to women without children will take place, in Cleveland, in the United States. At The NotMom Summit, academics, writers and inspirational speakers will cover topics such as dating, volunteering and voting. It's a growing movement. Across the Western world, record numbers of people are remaining childless. In Britain, one in five women have no children by the age of 44. In the US, the picture is similar for both sexes, and the number of childless women... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1858685/how-having-children-robs-parents-their-happiness?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1858685/how-having-children-robs-parents-their-happiness?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Sep 2015 13:00:00 +0000 By now, most reasonable people understand that they have been burning too much carbon. Most of these same people are still burning too much carbon. There is a big gap between our views on climate change and what we are actually doing about it. Unfortunately, actions are what matter, not sentiments or good intentions. Most of us have taken some steps in the right direction. However, we continue to produce greenhouse gases. Sometimes, we cannot do better; not everyone can afford solar panels or... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1848858/33-reasons-why-mankind-isnt-acting-stem-global-warming?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1848858/33-reasons-why-mankind-isnt-acting-stem-global-warming?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Aug 2015 04:00:00 +0000 The day I sat down to write this article the news was rather like any other day. A teenager had been found guilty of plotting to behead a British soldier. Fighting had broken out again in Ukraine. Greece was accusing its creditors of being motivated by ideology rather than economic reality. Some English football fans were filmed racially abusing a man on the Paris subway. In post-Occupy Hong Kong, a clash over “artistic differences” within the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra was turning nasty.... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1773296/beliefs-why-do-we-have-them-and-how-did-we-get-them?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1773296/beliefs-why-do-we-have-them-and-how-did-we-get-them?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Apr 2015 11:00:15 +0000 When I moved house recently, I was overwhelmed by the number of boxes containing my family's possessions. It made me feel quite sick. Even so, I couldn't bring myself to throw any of it out. Possessions define us as a species; a life without them would be barely recognisable as human. Without clothes, a roof over my head, some means of cooking and a supply of clean water, I couldn't survive at all. I struggle to imagine living without a bed, a bath, towels, light bulbs and soap - let alone... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1471162/hoard-mentality-what-possesses-us-possess?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1471162/hoard-mentality-what-possesses-us-possess?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Apr 2014 15:18:15 +0000 Michael Jensen is talking to me on the phone, but his voice is drowned out by what sounds like a vacuum cleaner. Or maybe it's a lawnmower. I'm used to bad connections, but Jensen isn't using Bluetooth on a busy motorway. He's in his office at one of the United States' top medical-research facilities. "I'm sorry," he says, when I ask about the noise. "I'm on a treadmill." I'd had a similar experience with David Dunstan, an Australian researcher who talked to me on his speakerphone as he walked... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1294921/sitting-target-how-long-periods-inactivity-slash-years-your?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1294921/sitting-target-how-long-periods-inactivity-slash-years-your?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Some 36-year-olds choose to collect vintage wine, vinyl records or sports memorabilia. For Richard Simcott, it is languages. His itch to learn has led him to study more than 30 foreign tongues - and he's not ready to give up. During our conversation, in a London restaurant, he reels off sentences in Spanish, Turkish and Icelandic as easily as I can name the pizza and pasta on our menu. He has learned Dutch on the streets of Rotterdam, Czech in Prague and Polish during a house share with some... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1253357/mind-over-grey-matter?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1253357/mind-over-grey-matter?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Locals call them honey-suckers, but don't be fooled by the name. They cruise through the hi-tech streets of India's newest megacity, sucking up its lowest-tech problem: sewage. These trucks empty Bangalore's million septic tanks and pit latrines, where the majority of its 10 million inhabitants relieve themselves. In other cities, sewage trucks discharge their cargo into streams and lakes, adding to local pollution. But in Bangalore, the honey-suckers head for farms outside the city, where their... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1227444/great-waste?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1227444/great-waste?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000