For 1.7 billion people, the Indian summer monsoon can mean drought and food shortages or widespread flooding between June and September. Being able to predict how climate change will affect the weather system in future could help people on the Indian subcontinent prepare. Luckily, there are clues in the distant past from the last time this weather system underwent abrupt climate change. Katrina Nilsson-Kerr and Pallavi Anand reveal how global warming strengthened India’s monsoon 130,000 years ago, causing it to pull warmth and moisture far into the northern hemisphere – hastening the end of an ice age.

The Conversation offers young people of all ages the chance to have their questions about the world answered by experts. Curious Kids is a series for children aged three to 12: in the latest instalment, a primary school class discovers why bats sleep upside down. And when a teenager wanted to know how to help a friend who’s depressed, we asked psychology expert Lowri Dowthwaite to explain, as part of I Need To Know – a Q&A series for young people aged 13 to 18. Details on how to submit questions can be found at the bottom of each article.

Only 2% of English children cycle to school, despite the dramatic health and environmental benefits that cycling provides. But new research shows there is the potential for 40% to cycle to school, if they did so at similar rates to Dutch children. Current low levels are doubtless due to the largely hostile cycling environments seen in much of the UK, say experts: transport policy has long prioritised the needs of cars, and this needs to change.

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