By Naomi Joseph, Arts + Culture Editor, The Conversation
December 16 marked 250 years since the writer’s birth – but at The Conversation, we have been celebrating all year.
(Full Story)
|
By Nicholas Ray, Doctoral Programmes Manager, Nottingham Trent University
When a ship sinks, it is often in tragic circumstances. Beneath the waves, however, a different story unfolds: shipwrecks become the foundations of new life.
Rusting hulls, broken masts and even piles of wartime munitions can, through time, be transformed into rich ecosystems. Scientists call this “shipwreck ecology”, and it offers a fascinating lens through which to view both the adaptability of marine life and the unexpected ways human shape the seascape.
This is illustrated vividly by a
(Full Story)
|
By Jolanta Burke, Associate Professor, Centre for Positive Health Sciences, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
You don’t need to make dramatic life changes to improve wellbeing. A simple mindset change can help maintain long-term wellbeing.
(Full Story)
|
By Tamsin McLaren, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Bath
In 1875, Arthur Liberty established a fabric company at the forefront of the aesthetic movement, and within 20 years was a byword for the very best in avant-garde textile design.
(Full Story)
|
By Lucy Whitehead, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, Royal Holloway, University of London
A Christmas Carol is usually read as a Victorian morality tale about capitalism and compassion. Yet an autographed script written by Charles Dickens during the American Civil War raises the possibility he may also have understood the story as speaking to the cause of ending slavery in the US.
First published in the UK on December 19 1843, the novella is famous for its advocacy of a reformed relationship between the Victorian capitalist Scrooge and the workers whose labour he profits from, epitomised by his downtrodden clerk, Bob Cratchit. The story has inspired countless…
(Full Story)
|
By Katy Highet, Lecturer in English Language & TESOL, University of the West of Scotland
Just as the protests outside asylum hotels of summer 2025 faded from headlines, some anti-immigration groups turned their attention to another target: English classes.
On November 24, a protest was organised outside a primary school in Glasgow, in opposition to an Esol (English for speakers of other languages) class being delivered for parents of children at the school. Holding placards reading “protect our kids”, protesters claimed that these classes presented a danger to children at…
(Full Story)
|
By Panagiota Tragantzopoulou, Visiting Lecturer, University of Westminster
As daylight shortens and routines slow down, many people experience a dip in mood and motivation. The run-up to Christmas is marketed as joyful, but for a large number of households it brings family strain and a surprising amount of loneliness. Against this backdrop, it’s no wonder the idea of welcoming a dog into the home feels appealing.
One of the most consistent findings in human–animal studies is that dogs often act as emotional stabilisers. In
(Full Story)
|
By Robin Bailey, Assistant professor, University of Cambridge
Christmas can be hard. For some people, it increases loneliness, grief, hopelessness and family tension, and the festive season has a way of turning ordinary concerns into urgent ones. Not because something terrible is guaranteed to happen, but because more is often at stake: money, time, family dynamics, travel and expectations.
A large study found a small but consistent dip in people’s wellbeing in the run-up to Christmas. One psychological process that often shows up under this pressure is worry.
It…
(Full Story)
|
By Flynn Ames, PhD candidate, Meteorology, University of Reading
A small, icy moon of Saturn called Enceladus is one of the prime targets in the search for life elsewhere in the solar system. A new study strengthens the case for Enceladus being a habitable world.
The data for those new research findings comes from the Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004-2017. In 2005, Cassini discovered geyser-like plumes of water vapour and ice grains erupting continuously out of cracks in Enceladus’ icy shell.
In the latest study, Nozair Khawaja, from the…
(Full Story)
|
By Robert Applebaum, Senior Research Scholar in Gerontology, Miami University
US health care policy will remain fractured until lawmakers address the core question of who is responsible for health care costs.
(Full Story)
|