Jo Caird

It’s all over our homes, in the clothes on our backs, and is vital to the operation of global trade, including the food system. Yet plastic – once hailed as a miracle material – is now causing enormous damage to the environment, not only through the carbon required to produce it, but also via the pollution i...

These tree-dwelling cuties are the original panda, having been described by scientists nearly 50 years before their black and white namesakes.
They’re not actually even close relatives of the giant panda, belonging to their own unique family (Ailuridae) and sharing traits with racoons, weasels and skunks.
How big are red pandas?
Brilliantly adapted against the cold and for life in the trees, red pandas grow to the size of a house cat, but with all the charisma of rusty red teddy bear.
They're...

Water is key to solving the energy challenge, and we all need to step up says Julie Lindley, current parent and Vice President at Ecolab / Nalco Water

The 2024 edition of the annual Great British Theatre magazine, a guide to musicals and plays in London and on tour around the UK

This article has been created by Positive News and supported by Winsor & Newton
A unique charity is bringing art to England’s mental health wards, transforming sterile spaces into hubs of creativity
It was nearly 10 years ago that Tim A Shaw and his partner, Niamh White, found themselves visiting a close friend who had been admitted as an inpatient to a mental health unit.
“It was a really inhumane, cold, clinical space,” he recalls. “Very bare. Quite claustrophobic. Entirely the opposite of ...

When a group of Positive News readers in Herefordshire found themselves despairing at the destruction of the rainforest, they decided to do something about it
On the surface, the ancestral rainforest territory of the Wampis people of north-eastern Peru bears little resemblance to the English county of Herefordshire. Yet the areas are inextricably linked, thanks to the grit of a small group of Herefordshire residents who raised £110,000 to protect a patch of the Amazon that is at least the siz...

Life lessons: Omid Djalili on what life so far has taught him

The stand-up comedian and actor on being a bridge between east and west, improving his listening skills and harnessing anger for good

Omid Djalili is an award-winning Iranian-British stand-up comedian and actor, who has performed all over the world, as well as appearing in Hollywood movies such as Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Sex and the City 2. Recent acting roles include Bridget Christie’s husband in the acclaimed Channel 4 se...

The Joro spider has hit the headlines recently thanks to research that predicts its continued spread up the US east coast. Here’s everything you need to know about the species.
What are Joro spiders?
The Joro spider (Trichonephila clavate) is a large-bodied orbweaver native to east Asia. Females usually have a bright yellow abdomen and yellow-banded legs, while males are a non-descript brown colour.
How big are Joro spiders?
The body of a female Joro spider female measures 2.8cm long, with le...

It’s bad news for American arachnophobes, as a giant east Asian spider is predicted to significantly expand its range on the US east coast over the coming months and years.
The Joro spider (Trichonephila clavate), a large-bodied orbweaver that measures 2.8cm long, with yellow-banded legs, has been in the US since around 2010. It is thought to have arrived in a shipping container, a common route for invasive insect species.
World's most venomous spiders
Since being initially spotted in Georgia...

Cicadas aren’t the easiest insects to study in the wild. For a start, they’re so well camouflaged as to be almost impossible to spot – locatable solely via their mating calls, some of which are inaudible to adult humans. The fact that cicada nymphs spend years (17 in one species!) living underground makes things even trickier. Reintroducing the UK’s only native cicada, as conservationists plan to do this summer, will therefore be quite the challenge.
The New Forest cicada, Cicadetta montana, ...

The current UK children’s laureate was born and raised in London and wrote his first poem – about a performing bear – while in year 8 at secondary school. Writing led to performance poetry and running creative workshops in schools. His debut poetry collection was published in 2014, followed by many critically acclaimed picture books, poetry anthologies and novel...