What the Israeli hostages have had to go through is unimaginable. The trauma of that unexpected, barbaric attack by Hamas, the murder of loved ones, then being violently abducted and dragged down into tunnels deep underground in Gaza. We live in a society where we often talk about trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but […]
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In March 2020, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, presented to the nation a graph showing “the shape of an epidemic”. The red line depicting the number of predicted COVID cases rose to a steep peak before falling again. Vallance explained that delaying and reducing the height of that peak was essential to […]
Read the articleVisualising wealth and poverty through AI. Authors, CC BY-SA To most effectively deliver aid to alleviate poverty, you have to know where the people most in need are. In many countries, this is often done with household surveys. But these are usually infrequent and cover limited locations. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have created […]
Read the articleSmit/Shutterstock Honeybees in man-made hives may have been suffering the cold unnecessarily for over a century because commercial hive designs are based on erroneous science, my new research shows. For 119 years, a belief that the way honeybees cluster together gives them a kind of evolutionary insulation has been fundamental for beekeeping practice, hive design […]
Read the articleSciePro / Shutterstock Alan Turing might be best know for his work helping to crack Germany’s “Enigma” communications code during the second world war. But he also came up with a theory where patterns can form just through chemical compounds spreading out (diffusing) and reacting with one another. This became known as reaction-diffusion theory for […]
Read the articleAs part of the “Women Against Feminism” campaign that launched in 2014, social media posts have featured young women holding placards with the message “I don’t need feminism because…” listing various reasons ranging from “I respect men” to “I am not a MAN-HATER”. This perception of misandry – a hatred of men – is perhaps […]
Read the articleUK chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, with his 2023 Autumn Statement. Simon Walker/No 10 Downing Street/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND The UK chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, as announced a raft of changes to the tax and benefit system as part of the government’s autumn statement. They included: main employee rate of national insurance cut from 12% to 10% from January […]
Read the articleThe padlock icon which appears in most internet browser address bars. Robert Avgustin/Shutterstock Do you know what the padlock symbol in your internet browser’s address bar means? If not, you’re not alone. New research by my colleagues and I shows that only 5% of UK adults understand the padlock’s significance. This is a threat to […]
Read the articleyhelfman / Shutterstock The unofficial motto of Silicon Valley has long been “move fast and break things”. It relies on the assumption that in order to create cutting edge technology and to be ahead of the competition, companies need to accept that things will get damaged in the process. However, this approach can have implications […]
Read the articleHave you ever noted that you sleep more in the winter months? Or eat more carbs or have low energy? If you do, then you might be one of the around 6% of the higher latitude populations with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). If you’ve searched the internet for tips on how to fight the winter […]
Read the articleAround one in five American adults manage to squeeze in watching a movie on a daily basis. It’s a great way to escape the daily grind and unwind with loved ones. But, what can you actually remember about last night’s film? You may be able to remember the title, the rough story outline or the […]
Read the articleThe restored image of Earthrise. A high quality black and white image was coloured using hues from the original colour photos. Image Credit: NASA, Apollo 8 Crew, Bill Anders; Processing and License: Jim Weigang, CC BY-SA The recent death of Frank Borman, commander of Nasa’s Apollo 8 mission in 1968, has focused attention on that […]
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