Are ‘mind children’ the future of reproduction?

Forget dirty nappies. In Silicon Valley, there’s increasing chatter about virtual offspring

Anna Ritchie obituary

Archaeologist whose excavations in Orkney included Knap of Howar, with domestic buildings more than 5,000 years old

Stephen Hawking’s father worried his son ‘does not study much’, diaries reveal

Exclusive: New biography uncovers Frank Hawking’s papers in which he lamented that his son had ‘little initiative’

Do we judge people by the way they sound? How accents shape our lives

A new book by linguistics professor Valerie Fridland, who was raised in Memphis by parents with French accents, explores the power behind the way we speak

Michael Thompson obituary

Anthropologist who studied the values that society applies in making decisions and climber in the first party to ascend the south-west face of Everest

The emotional security secret: how to get healthier, happier and have stronger relationships

Psychiatrist Amir Levine’s first book explored different types of attachment. In his follow-up, he explains how anyone can become more secure

‘The Moon and The Zoo’: Simon Armitage poem celebrates 200 years of ZSL

Zoological Society of London commissions poet laureate for animation to mark its 200th anniversary

How to train your brain to see possibility instead of doom

Our minds evolved to minimise unpredictability. But if we learn to live with doubt, a world of opportunities opens up

Underland review – poetic exploration of life deep beneath the Earth’s surface

Sinkholes, storm drains, manmade labs miles underground … this documentary, based on Robert Macfarlane’s book, burrows deep into some of humanity’s great unknowns

Is time a figment of our imaginations?

Cosmologists and physicists come up empty handed when they attempt to pin down time. So what, exactly, is it?

‘My ideas are a little revolutionary’: ecologist Suzanne Simard on intelligent forests, the climate and her critics

Her research popularised the idea of the wood wide web, but the scientific backlash was brutal. As the author of The Mother Tree returns to the forest in a new book, she discusses her battle to reimagine our relationship with nature

Relentless sun and ruthless populists: how the climate crisis will change the next 20 years

Former diplomat Arthur Snell says a heating planet is accelerating conflict and migration – and fostering a new age of empire. Democracies are dangerously unprepared, he warns

Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion and The Terror, dies aged 77

Award-winning science fiction and horror writer died in Colorado on 21 February with family at his side

Should you overshare more?

We may cringe at influencers and friends who let it all hang out, but research shows that keeping quiet might be worse

Tech legend Stewart Brand on Musk, Bezos and his extraordinary life: ‘We don’t need to passively accept our fate’

He was at the heart of 1960s counterculture, then paved the way for the libertarian mindset of Silicon Valley. At 87, Brand is still keen to ensure the world is maintained properly – not just today, but for the next 10,000 years