By Bradley A. Mortin, PhD Candidate, King's College London
Every electric vehicle, smartphone and laptop battery begins with one essential ingredient: lithium.
The critical mineral sits at the centre of the global transition to cleaner energy. Lithium powers rechargeable batteries. Securing its supply is, therefore, an economic and geopolitical priority.
The International Energy Agency expects global lithium demand to increase as electric vehicle…
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By Bomikazi Zeka, Associate Professor in Finance, University of Canberra
Raechel Johns, Professor of Marketing; Co-Director, Centre for Intergenerational Digital and Financial Wellbeing (CIDFW); Canberra Business School, University of Canberra
Ever used or thought of using artificial intelligence (AI) for financial advice? Is it a good idea?
Anyone with the internet, even on their phone, can access AI. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity are free, instant, and easy to use. They can break down complex financial concepts and provide financial solutions in seconds. But can they safely guide a user through a nuanced, high-stakes financial crisis?
Our recent research explored this question, drawing on our
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By Syeda Noor Fatima
A transgender man in Pakistan built a mosque hoping it would offer an inclusive space for worship. Instead, he faces harassment from neighbors amid growing attacks on the trans community.
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By Fatima Yousofi
A visit to a market, a medical appointment, or a family gathering is no longer judged only by necessity, but also by the possibility of being questioned, humiliated, or detained.
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By Amnesty International
Reacting to the siege of three Palestinian families’ homes by Israeli settlers in the village of Qusra, southeast of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said: The horrors unfolding in Qusra are far from an isolated incident. They reflect the relentless escalation and expansion of an accelerating and well-documented pattern of coordinated and strategic settler terror, enabled, backed and funded by the State of Israel, with the aim of displacing Palestinians across the […] The…
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By Nick Wheelhouse, Lecturer in Microbiology, Edinburgh Napier University
When a dairy cow miscarries, a farmer loses far more than an unborn calf. Feed has been grown, land and water used, and greenhouse gas released during the cow’s pregnancy but milk production, a future animal and income will be lost.
One of the most important of these greenhouse gases is methane. Methane is produced by microbes within a cow’s stomach during digestion (known as enteric-methane) and most of it is breathed out into the atmosphere. Instead, healthier animals are more productive, so the amount of methane they emit is associated with more milk or meat, reducing the emissions…
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By Kaweh Kerami, ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University
Kambaiz Rafi, Non-resident Research Fellow, Graduate School of Development, University of Central Asia
Five years on from seizing power in Kabul on August 15 2021 and consolidating its hold through the whole of Afghanistan, the Taliban claims to have ended the country’s decades-long war and achieved security.
International troops have withdrawn and the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has collapsed. Daily security incidents, such as suicide attacks and roadside bombs that were mostly carried out by the Taliban in their two-decades-long insurgency, have since decreased. Conflict indicators such as those…
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By Danny G. Winder, Professor and Chair of Neurobiology, UMass Chan Medical School
Marie Doyle, Instructor in Neurobiology, UMass Chan Medical School
For some, abstaining from alcohol can subsequently increase compulsive drinking. Our research team found that, in abstaining mice, this urge to drink is preceded by changes in the activity of a particular brain region, pointing to potential new screening opportunities to identify and help those most vulnerable to relapse.
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By Pei-Hsu Lin, PhD candidate in the Department of History, Washington University in St. Louis
Empires have risen and fallen in their pursuit of precious resources such as oil, gold, tea or spices. But in the first half of the 20th century, an increasingly assertive Imperial Japan relied on a fishier form of wealth to build its military and industrial base: the sardine.
In Japan, sardines are among a group of fish fondly known as “the people’s fish.” Along with Japanese anchovy and round herring, they are collectively known as “iwashi” and have long been a common ingredient in the Japanese diet, whether…
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By Olivia Harper Wilkins, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Dickinson College
You may have heard the phrase “we are made of star-stuff.” This statement by the astronomer Carl Sagan refers to the fact that elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were forged in the centers of the first stars. But how does this star-stuff evolve into the chemistry of rocks, plants and people?
As an…
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