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You'd think Winston Churchill would have been occupied with thoughts of battle on the eve of the second world war. But Britain's most famous prime minister found some time in 1939 to sit down and write an essay about alien life. The essay, recently unearthed in MIssouri, was remarkably prescient, writes Elizabeth Tasker, and holds lessons for the present day.
We've also brought you stories this week on the vampire bats that love to drink human blood, the stunning public poetry of Pakistan, and the ghostly apparitions of India's Doon Valley.
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Dave Strom/Flickr
Elizabeth Tasker, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Churchill allowed science to flourish. Without a similar attitude in today’s politics, we may hit a bottleneck for life that leaves a Universe without a single human soul to enjoy it.
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The lychgate of the Camel’s Back Road Cemetery.
Anne_nz/Flickr
Arup K Chatterjee, O.P. Jindal Global University
Are the the hauntings at Landour just practical fictions amidst the solitude of the hills?
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Doesn’t look like much of a threat, does he?
Gerry Carter/Wikimedia
Enrico Bernard, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
New data shows that the hairy-legged vampire bat of Pernambuco, Brazil, has developed an appetite for human blood over that of other possible prey.
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Rickshaw poetry in Pakistan.
D.Kazi
Durriya Kazi, University of Karachi
Pakistan's rich visual and poetic culture is expressed every day on walls, rickshaws and buses. As the country struggles to offer solace to its people, they carry its narratives and emotions.
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Jesus Blasco De Avellaneda/Reuters
Anna Triandafyllidou, European University Institute
What do border walls cost? And do they work?
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