Margins

Short

The $1 portable microscope that could transform global health

The Foldscope is cheap enough to be disposable, but its high-definition images are as good as those made by vastly more expensive microscopes

Short

The Scottish village that bought its own harbour

Favourited: A short film about how a local community banded together to buy and rejuvenate Portpatrick harbour

Short

The junk playground where children run with scissors

​This New York playground is teaching kids –  and their parents – the value of independence, extreme creativity and saying yes to splinters

Short

Blackboards in the Jungle

In the Calais refugee camp, makeshift schools are springing up, catering to the needs of students of all ages

Long

The forests bear the carbon

What a campaign to preserve​ woods in the Himalayan foothills tells us about the global war against climate change

Short

Dance moves: How northern soul led to club culture

In our series on innovation in dance music we look at the music – and dance – devotees who transplanted soul from Detroit to the towns of northern England

Short

Portraits from an ad hoc city

Amid stasis and uncertainty, the inhabitants of the refugee camp in Calais have been forced to create a new lives on the margins

Long

An honest thief

How free-culture pioneer Aaron Swartz fought for the free exchange of information, and lost

Long

Moonshots for the Earth

Can we find technological solutions for climate change?