By Lucy Thompson, Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University
Amanda Vickery, Professor in Early Modern History, Queen Mary University of London
Andrew McInnes, Reader in Romanticisms, Edge Hill University
Octavia Cox, Departmental Lecturer, Literature, University of Oxford
Richard de Ritter, Lecturer in Literature, University of Leeds
Ruvani Ranasinha, Professor of Global Literatures, King's College London
To mark the 250th anniversary of her birth, we’re pitting Jane Austen’s much-loved novels against each other in a battle of wit, charm and romance. Six leading Austen experts have made their case for her ultimate novel, but the winner is down to you. Cast your vote in the poll at the end of the article, and let us know the reason for your choice in the comments. This is Jane Austen Fight Club – it’s bonnets at dawn…
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Championed by Lucy Thompson, lecturer in 19th-century…
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By Gemma Marfany Nadal, Profesora Catedrática de Genética, Universitat de Barcelona
Forensic genetics can help us trace the ancestral source of any wine grape – and may lead to bioengineered wines in the future.
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By Astrid R.N. Haas, Research associate at African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town
Johannesburg in South Africa and São Paulo in Brazil offer useful insights into how cities in the global south should be managed.
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By Danny Bradlow, Professor/Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria
African sovereign debtors in distress face terrible choices. They are often forced to choose between fully paying their creditors and financing the needs of their populations – health, education, renewable energy, water. Discussions with their creditors focus on financial, economic and contractual issues. The environmental and social impacts of their situation are largely excluded from negotiations.
Thanks to the initiative of some Vanuatan law students, this may be…
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By Claire Isabella Gilmour, PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol
This year has seen a number of artefacts recovered from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Egypt. The area has attracted interest for some time due to ongoing searches for the tomb of Cleopatra VII and Alexander the Great. But the new finds add to our knowledge of the ancient city of Canopus, one of several settlements that have largely…
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By Ciara Greene, Associate Professor of Psychology, University College Dublin
Psychologists have intensively studied the factors that make both eyewitnesses and victims more or less susceptible to memory distortion. But to date there has been no experimental evidence comparing memory suggestibility between the complainants and accused in sexual assault cases.
My recent study was the first to compare…
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By Malgorzata Szymanska, PhD Candidate, Cognition and Brain Science, University of Cambridge
Hunter Schone, PhD Candidate, Neuroscience, UCL
Inside every human brain lies a detailed map of the body, with different regions dedicated to different body parts – the hands, lips, feet and more. But what happens to this map when a body part is removed?
For decades, scientists believed that when a body part is amputated, the brain’s body map dramatically reorganises itself, with neighbouring body parts taking over the area once represented by the missing limb.
This idea of large-scale brain reorganisation became a central pillar…
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By Gráinne Tyrrell, Doctoral Researcher in Biomedical Device Design, School of Architecture and Product Design, University of Limerick
Eoin White, Associate Professor of Medtech Design, University of Limerick
Leonard O Sullivan, Professor in Ergonomics and Human Factors, Department of Science and Engineering, University of Limerick
“If you can’t handle this, you’ll never keep up with your peers.”
That’s what a young vascular surgeon in training reported hearing from a senior colleague during interviews for our study, after she needed two hands to hold a medical device her male peers could operate with one.
Another cardiologist, more than ten years into her career, must regularly hand over part of a procedure…
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By Claire Hart, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Southampton
Kathy Carnelley, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Southampton
Research shows that ‘phubbing’ – ignoring a partner to look at your phone – can lower relationship satisfaction and spark retaliation.
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By Andrew Thomas, Lecturer in Middle East Studies, Deakin University
The organisation behind antisemitic arson attacks in Australia is now considered a terrorist group. Here’s how the enormously powerful group operates.
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