By Gabriella Penitente, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science, Sheffield Hallam University
When Olympian Alice Kinsella talks about returning to elite competition after giving birth, she isn’t simply planning a comeback; she’s pushing into territory that gymnastics has rarely explored.
Increasingly, athletes are returning to training and competition after childbirth, often sooner, stronger and with greater public visibility. This challenges the long-held…
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By Sarah Mills, Professor of Human Geography, Loughborough University
Yes or no? It’s a simple question that now drives more than US$13 billion (£9.7 billion) a month on prediction markets – companies like Polymarket, PredictIt and Kalshi.
These firms run digital platforms that use blockchain technology to let anonymous users gamble on uncertainty and place “predictions” rather than bets. Users can buy a yes or no “event contract” on anything from strikes…
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By Harsh Trivedi, Teaching Associate French, School of Languages, Arts and Societies., University of Sheffield
Most people think originality comes from endless freedom. The role playing game Dungeons & Dragons suggests the opposite. It gives players a small number of races, classes and backgrounds and somehow produces characters that feel endlessly distinct. A half-elf paladin might be an immediately recognisable type, yet no two half-elf paladins ever feel the same once play begins. This is because identity in Dungeons & Dragons is not created by escaping structure, but by working through it.
Nineteenth-century readers encountered something strikingly similar in the novels of the French novelist…
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By Robin Bailey, Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology, University of Cambridge
Some mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression and ADHD, have become more accepted in society. People can now talk about them at work, at home and online and often be met with understanding.
This change matters. It makes it easier to ask for help and harder for employers and institutions to pretend mental health problems do not exist.
Public sympathy is uneven. Some conditions are widely understood, while others are still judged harshly.
As some conditions become familiar, they set the template for what mental illness is supposed to look like. Presentations…
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By Rebecca Payne, Clinical Senior Lecturer, Bangor University
Zengbo Wang, Professor in Imaging and Laser Micromachining, Bangor University
Your phone was built to make you look good, not to support diagnosis, yet its images are now influencing your medical care.
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By Ed Atkins, Senior Lecturer, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol
Sean Fox, Professor of Geography & Global Development, University of Bristol
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: even as Britain makes the welcome transition to net zero, some communities will lose jobs and face economic disruption. And the places most exposed are overwhelmingly the same places that were hit hardest by the wave of industrial job losses in the 1980s.
That’s the striking pattern revealed by our new research mapping vulnerability across all 365 local authorities in Great Britain. Many places already struggling after decades of industrial decline are poised…
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By Anna Mayo, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Carnegie Mellon University
As nurses in Pittsburgh and nationwide spotlight staffing shortages, better pay and workplace safety, labor negotiations have intensified. Here’s what’s at stake.
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By Antonios Mamalakis, Assistant Professor of Data Science and Environmental Science, University of Virginia
Behind the long-term climate projections that affect our lives sits one of the most remarkable scientific achievements of the modern era.
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By Clare E. Boerigter, Wilderness Fire Research Fellow at the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research Station, United States Forest Service
For decades, wilderness lands have been left largely unaltered by human activity. But those places are still changing, and keeping them wild and special may require action, not inaction.
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By Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College
Throughout the 20th century, college and university presidents spoke out on everything, from wars to civil rights struggles, with a sense of moral authority attempting to guide the course.
Their language was typically direct and free of jargon.
“Democracy is the best form of government.…
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