David Christian's new book explores the idea of a shared humanity in which our Paleolithic ancestors and Neolithic farmers play as important a role as the rulers, emperors and conquerors who have dominated scholarship.

Can psychedelic drugs change our world view - and if so, how? Author Michael Pollan delves into the spiritual and therapeutic implications of LSD, magic mushrooms and even toad venom. They are brainless, spineless, eyeless, and bloodless, but are jellyfish climate change winners?

A global poaching epidemic is threatening the existence of countless species including rhinos, tigers, savannah elephants - and the lesser-known pangolin; Oleg Gordievsky was a catch in a million for MI6 - a high ranking KGB agent who supplied sensational intelligence at the height of the Cold War.

PM Modi came to power in India on the back of a promise to fight corruption, but four years after his victory how much has changed? The subcontinent's Gen Y have built lives and some wealth through working in call centres but that comes with its own problems

Two hundred years of Frankenstein .

The race for space has been accelerating in the last few years, and astronomer and planetary scientist Ian Crawford says the moon is a vital launching point for our interplanetary ambitions. Should we mine it, settle it, or leave it alone? Louisa May Alcott didn't want to write Little Women - but for 150 years, million of readers readers from Massachusetts to Mumbai have wanted to read it.

Mermaids appear in every culture - from indigenous Australian to European. Why do they have such huge and enduring appeal? The rise - and interminable rise - of America's radical right.

When Narendra Modi became PM of the world's biggest democracy in 2014, his victory illustrated the forces of change sweeping through India - political, economic and social. And meet the Australian family who went to live in an Indian slum.

Can the algorithms applied to health care be regulated and follow the remarkable progression of precision over history.

Why has chiropterophobia been so prevalent in art and literature in the West? Is it time to rehabilitate the bat? Can we have a new national drought policy in Australia , or do we simply repackage old policies from over a hundred years ago?