By Joanna L'Heureux, Postdoctoral Researcher, Public Health and Sport Sciences, University of Exeter
Social media videos are claiming that mouthwash can raise risk of blood pressure – and potentially damage heart health.
According to some of these videos, this is caused by mouthwash wiping out “good” oral bacteria that are important for the cardiovascular system. While it’s a striking message, don’t throw your mouthwash away just yet. The reality is far more complex.
Our mouths contain a wide variety of bacteria. Together,…
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By Benedict Morrison, Senior lecturer in Film, Television, Literature, and Queer Studies, University of Exeter
In her 1998 essay What’s a Good Gay Film?, film critic B. Ruby Rich considered what queer audiences were looking for.
She wrote that queer cinema-goers were seeking “films of validation and a culture of affirmation: work that can reinforce identity, visualise respectability, combat injustice and bolster social status”. They were tired, she argued, of stereotypes…
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By Massimo D'Angelo, Research Associate in the Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs, Loughborough University
“I am not a politician; I speak of the Gospel.” Pope Leo XIV’s recent remarks, made during his apostolic journey to Africa, immediately suggest that his clash with Donald Trump operates on a different level to the US president’s usual political spats.
This is not the classic kind of confrontation that Trump has often had with foreign heads of state and government in the past, such as in recent months with the UK…
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By Roberta Lexier, Associate Professor, Departments of General Education and Humanities, Mount Royal University
Democratic socialism, David Lewis reportedly told his son, Stephen, may not triumph in his lifetime, but perhaps for his children. “Recently,” said grandson Avi Lewis, “my Dad told me the same thing: not in my lifetime, maybe in yours.”
But the newly elected leader of the federal New Democratic Party added in his victory speech that he refuses to tell his own child the same thing: “We can’t wait another generation. We’ve got to start winning now.”
Stephen…
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By Elena Bertozzi, Professor of Game Design & Development, Quinnipiac University
By letting people make choices and experience the outcomes of those choices, gaming provides a much more hands-on way of learning about health.
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By Austin McCoy, Assistant Professor of History, West Virginia University
Classic songs ‘Nowhere to Run’ and ‘Dancing in the Street’ captured the revolutionary spirit of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
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By Katrina Stack, Ph.D. Candidate in Human Geography, University of Tennessee
Reagan Yessler, Adjunct Professor of Human Geography, Pellissippi State Community College
Within moments of entering the Newport Renaissance Faire, you are ushered to a group of fairies. They pass you a scroll and say, “You must seek out the Bone Man for the first hurdle in your quest.” As you navigate the fair, you find many men dressed in bones, both vendors and fellow attendees. When you find the correct Bone Man – an actor wearing what appears to be a mask made of human skull along with a crown constructed from deer antlers – he stamps your scroll. He then sends you to your next target: the Drunk Viking.…
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By Marccus D. Hendricks, Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Environmental Planning, University of Maryland
When 240 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., starting in mid-January 2026 and running though mid-March, it was estimated to be the largest sewage spill in U.S. history. But it wasn’t the first, nor will it be the last.
In fact, around the nation, sewage spills are contaminating waterways and communities with unsettling frequency.…
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By Febe Armanios, Professor of History, Middlebury College
When the United States and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28, 2026, images of smoke billowing over Iranian cities began to dominate the news. But another feature of those skylines has remained constant: the thousands of satellite dishes that dot Tehran’s rooftops, picking up signals that originate far beyond Iran’s borders – despite attempts to confiscate them.
For two decades, Christian television channels produced in the United States and Europe have made their…
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By Tony Milligan, Teaching Associate in Philosophy, School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities, University of Sheffield
The classic 1988 anime Akira returns to cinema screens on April 17. Set in a dystopian neo-Tokyo, it is one of the few pieces of cyberpunk manga which has translated well onto the screen. Its ultimate message is disturbing: we are no better or worse than the elites who are using technology to dominate us. All of us are just part of a bigger game. A game involving power and our limited ability to wield it.
Directed by the original manga creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, the hand-drawn animation is incredible, the storyline complex and the violence relentless. Along with Blade…
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