By Matías Mattamala, Postdoctoral Researcher, Oxford Robotics Institute, University of Oxford
Kawasaki has recently revealed its computer-generated concept for the Corleo, a “robotic horse”. The video shows the automated equine galloping through valleys, crossing rivers, climbing mountains and jumping over crevasses.
The Corleo promises a high-end robotic solution to provide a revolutionary mobility experience. Kawasaki’s current motorbikes are constrained to roads, paths and trails, but a machine with legs has no boundaries – it can reach places no other vehicles can go.
But in the case of…
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By James Scott Vandeventer, Senior Lecturer in Sustainability, Manchester Metropolitan University
Hospital visits usually involve a medical emergency or appointment. The last thing on most patients’ minds will be how the building works. We expect the lights to be on, medical equipment to work, a comfortable room temperature, healthy food, an appropriate layout with efficient routes between departments and all the other features that make the healthcare system run smoothly.
But many decisions about how hospitals will operate are made long before we enter the door – and have significant consequences for their environmental footprint.
In England, the NHS contributes 4%…
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By Claire Kinsella, Trinity College Dublin
Craig Johnston, Senior Lecturer - Criminology, University of the West of England
Nearly 16,000 children in England learn in state-funded alternative provision (AP). These are educational settings for school-aged pupils who are unable to attend mainstream school. These pupils may have been excluded from their previous school, have a medical condition or find themselves without a school place.
There are around 333…
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By William Webster, Professor and Director, Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy, University of Stirling
Diana Miranda, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Stirling
By autumn 2026, all frontline officers of the UK’s second largest police force will be expected to wear a camera while on duty, at a cost of over £13 million.
Police Scotland is one of the last forces in the UK to employ this technology nationally. It has been a requirement for armed…
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By Anastasia A. Theodosiou, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Academic Clinical Lecturer, University of Glasgow
Antonia Ho, Clinical Senior Lecturer, University of Glasgow
Chrissie Jones, Associate Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, University of Southampton
It takes just a spark to start a wildfire, and when it comes to measles, the embers are already glowing.
A new modelling study published in Jama sounded the alarm: recent drops in childhood vaccination rates could reignite diseases that were nearly extinguished.
The researchers used a simulation to predict the effect of falling vaccination coverage for measles, rubella, polio and diphtheria. Even at current coverage, measles alone could soon infect more than 850,000 people in the US…
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By Javi Buron Garcia, Associate Professor, School of Architecture & Product Design, University of Limerick
In one of his final announcements before his death, Pope Francis granted Catalonian architect Antoni Gaudí the title of “venerable”, due to his dedication to the design and build of the Sagrada Família church in Barcelona. This recognition is the second of four steps towards sainthood, a process that started more than three decades ago by a secular association founded in Barcelona in 1992 and led by local architects. If this happens, Gaudí would be the…
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By Michael Hornberger, Professor of Applied Dementia Research, University of East Anglia
Ever heard of Fischer’s disease? No? Maybe that is not surprising, because it doesn’t exist. But it could have. In fact, the disease we now know as Alzheimer’s disease might just as easily have been called Fischer’s disease or Alzheimer-Fischer disease.
Back in 1907, Dr Oskar Fischer published detailed research on what we now recognise as Alzheimer’s disease. Fischer described cases of older people who had cognitive symptoms in their lifetime and noted tiny plaque-like structures and fibrous tangles in their brains after their death.
These changes were the same as those…
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By Alice Mah, Professor in Urban and Environmental Studies, University of Glasgow
My book Red Pockets explores questions of inheritance: what we owe to ancestors and to future generations, and what we owe to the places that we inhabit.
It was inspired by visiting my ancestral village in Guangdong in south China, after nearly a century of intergenerational separation due to migration, war and revolution. My grandfather wrote about his childhood stay in this rice village in his unpublished memoirs, and I had always wanted to see it.
In spring 2018,…
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By Steve Schifferes, Honorary Research Fellow, City Political Economy Research Centre, City St George's, University of London
When US president Donald Trump took office in January he inherited a strong economy, which was growing faster than those of many of its rivals. Nevertheless, he won the election in November on the back of strong voter dissatisfaction with the economy, especially the cost of living. This is the legacy of high inflation sparked first by COVID and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But Trump…
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By Kirsten Freja Young, Senior Lecturer, Ecology, University of Exeter
Marion Rossi, Research Fellow in Climate Systems, University of Exeter
Even biologists only capture a glimpse of the lives of whales. There are still many species whose lives are largely a mystery, particularly the deep diving whales.
But scientists are learning more about the role that whales play in marine ecosystems and the services that they provide. Recent research is showing that even whale urine is important for the planet.
Previous work suggested that…
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