By Lynn Akesson, Professor Emerita of Ethnology in the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University
There’s a growing interest in alternatives to traditional burials as well as making the process more environmentally friendly in many countries. For many people it’s about the environmental impact of the funeral industry globally.
In the US, for instance, a surface equal to the size of Hawaii (1.6 million hectares) is deforested each year for manufacturing coffins. The amount of wood used is equal to building 4.5 million…
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By Philip Broadbent, Wellcome Multimorbidity PhD Fellow & Public Health Registrar, University of Glasgow
This summer’s heat deaths weren’t random. Poor, badly insulated homes are a public health hazard in summer as well as winter.
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By Lauren Alex O'Hagan, Research Fellow, School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, The Open University
During the Troubles, a harrowing 30-year conflict over the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, music opened up alternative ways of understanding identity.
Along with boxing and greyhound racing, music offered a rare site of cross-community interaction. Musical identities…
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By Georg Lammich, Senior Researcher, Institute of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen
Tanzania’s foreign policy has changed in the past five years. There is a clear break from the mood, tone and actions of President John Magufuli, who ran the country from 2015 until his death in 2021. His rule was marked by challenges to foreign investors, an emphasis on sovereignty, reduction in international engagement and withdrawal from important legal commitments.
His successor, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, has adopted a different tone. Her administration has courted…
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By Mahfoud Amara, Associate Professor in Sport Policy & Management, Qatar University
There was a dramatic increase in the number of countries able to qualify for the final stages of the 2026 men’s football World Cup. Of the 48 teams to qualify, global football body Fifa decided that nine would be African…
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By Matti Barthel, Research Technician, ETH Zurich
Antoine de Clippele, Scientist, ETH Zurich
Johan Six, Professor of Sustainable Agrosystems, ETH Zurich
Travis Drake, Postdoctoral Researcher, ETH Zurich
Ancient carbon is leaking from two lakes in the Congo Basin, revealing a previously unknown link between tropical peatlands and the atmosphere.
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By Wandile Sihlobo, Senior Fellow, Department of Agricultural Economics, Stellenbosch University
The likely impact of the expected El Niño on South Africa’s agriculture and food prices in 2027 is a major point of discussion among analysts and economists in the country.
By mid-2026, weather forecasts were signalling that the world was heading towards a severe El Niño. The…
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By Ben Soodavar, Lecturer, Department of War Studies, King's College London
Trump has declared the US the ‘guardian’ of the Strait of Hormuz, but his strikes are feeding the very behaviour they aim to deter.
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By Adam Taylor, Professor of Anatomy, Lancaster University
The England midfielder’s prominent veins probably reflect elite training, but, for the rest of us, visible veins can sometimes indicate a medical problem.
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By Karen L. Vaughan, Researcher in Nutrition, University of Leeds
One in ten children aged seven to nine years is living with obesity in Europe. In England, childhood obesity rises from around 10% of children in reception to around 22% by year six. While we know there are many complex and inter-connected biological, social and…
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