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Editor's note
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The Americas had native dog populations long before Europeans arrived, yet today there is little sign of them. Except, that is, for a sexually-transmitted cancer that continues to infect modern canines all over the world. When looking into the cells of this extraordinary type of infectious cancer Máire Ní Leathlobhair was surprised to find the fossilised DNA of the “founder dog” – a pre-Columbus pioneer pooch who left a rather nasty legacy.
The Brexit secretary, David Davis, has resigned days after Theresa May’s cabinet had reached agreement over how Brexit will happen. Mark Garnett writes on how the prime minister corralled her cabinet and pulled off a coup – at least for a short time.
After another case of Novichok poisoning in Wiltshire, fears are mounting over the danger of residual contamination in the area. With Google reporting a rise in the number of search queries for “Novichok half life”, it is easy to think of the nerve agent as a radioactive poison. However, as Rob Chilcott explains, contamination from nerve agents is differentcontamination from nerve agents is
different. While it may not stick around for as long as radioactive polonium, it may be more difficult to clean up.
In the famously hot summer of 1976 food prices in the UK sky rocketed. But are concerns that the recent heatwave will dry up fruit and veg supplies – and particularly potatoes – well founded? Historians of agriculture, James Bowen and John Martin, explain why things were much worse back then than they are today.
And as the first boys are rescued from the cave they were trapped in Thailand, Sarita Robinson assesses the psychological impact the ordeal may have on them.
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Jack Marley
Assistant Section Editor
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Top stories
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America’s dogs are a husk(y) of what they once were.
www.commons.wikimedia.org
Máire Ní Leathlobhair, University of Cambridge
America's early dogs are all gone – save for their rather nasty cancer.
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A police officer stands next to a rubbish bin that has been cordoned off in Salisbury, Britain, 05 July 2018.
RICK FINDLER/EPA
Robert Chilcott, University of Hertfordshire
Former Russian spies Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei Skripal were both poisoned – one polonium, the other by Novichok. Now that there's been another nerve agent case, what's the difference?
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The summer of 1976 was a scorcher.
PA/PA Archive/PA Images
James Paul Bowen, University of Liverpool; John Martin, University of Leicester
The heatwave is unlikely to cause the price hikes of 1976 for a number of reasons.
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Politics + Society
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Mark Garnett, Lancaster University
The prime minister had managed to get her cabinet to agree on a Brexit plan … for 48 hours.
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Alex Powell, City, University of London
It is important that consideration is given to the role played by individuals working within departments, not just the government.
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Jon Dart, Leeds Beckett University
Some on the left view sport as a distraction. But life is a struggle. And there shouldn't be anything wrong with finding something to celebrate.
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Belinda Brooks-Gordon, Birkbeck, University of London; Teela Sanders, University of Leicester
Sex work using the internet is safer for sex workers and easier to police – why would MPs want to change that?
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Paul Rogers, University of Bradford
The wars against Islamic State and al-Qaida show that military responses may seem to work in the short term but don’t change much in the long run.
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Agata Fijalkowski, Lancaster University
With it's latest reforms, Poland's leading Law and Justice party is hindering any progress towards a viable judiciary.
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Arts + Culture
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John Williams, University of Leicester
Every England fan in Moscow knows that that football is 'coming home', but can England really claim to be where the world's most popular sport rests its head?
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Christine Berberich, University of Portsmouth
The Booker Prize is 50 – and to celebrate it, there's a mega prize.
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Darragh McGee, University of Bath; Stephen Ortega, Harvard University
The beautiful game still needs to perform on bigger social issues.
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Julian Preece, Swansea University; Aled Rees, Swansea University
The ability to speak more than one language informs many writers of fiction, but analysis of Booker Prize shortlists suggests this is not so important any more.
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Health + Medicine
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Sarita Robinson, University of Central Lancashire
The looming prospect of a long stay in the cave has increased fears for the boys' mental health.
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Patrick Lewis, University of Reading
Unravelling the story of how a simple neurotransmitter led to the development of a drug for Parkinson's disease.
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Science + Technology
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Sarita Robinson, University of Central Lancashire
The looming prospect of a long stay in the cave has increased fears for the boys' mental health.
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Elizabeth Boakes, UCL; David Redding, UCL
The Earth is losing more and more biodiversity every day, and we should all be worried
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