By André Gagné, Full Professor, Department of Theological Studies, Concordia University
When religious belief shapes the politics of rivals, it is labelled dangerous theology; but when it appears in Washington, it is cast as divine providence.
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By Henry Taylor, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham
What can you see right now? This might seem like a silly question, but what enters your consciousness is not the whole story when it comes to vision. A great deal of visual processing in the brain goes on well below our conscious awareness.
Some studies have probed the unconscious depths of vision. One source of evidence comes from the neurological condition known as blindsight, which is caused by damage to areas of the brain involved…
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By Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University
Four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world is bracing for another energy crisis. The US-Israel bombing of Iran and then the blockade of the strait of Hormuz have forced up the price of oil. The price of natural gas in Europe has also risen sharply.
In the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a £50 million package to support consumers who heat their homes with oil. The government is also…
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By Pedram Vousoughi, Post Doctoral Researcher in Biological Sciences, University of Limerick
Across Europe, many banks alongside motorways are planted with grass to stabilise soil and keep roadside landscapes tidy.
But there may be a better solution. Already some countries are experimenting with using moss in built-up areas to absorb air pollution. As countries search for nature-based solutions to climate and environmental challenges, roadside moss is starting to attract…
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By Lucy van Dorp, Principal Research Fellow, Microbial Genomics, UCL
Charlotte Houldcroft, Lecturer, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge
There’s no nice way to put it: small children are snotty. A research study that tested children for multiple respiratory viruses every week for a year found that under-fives are carrying one or more viruses 50% of the time. A child aged 15 months will have 12-15 colds per year and eight or nine of those will show symptoms, such as a runny nose. If parents feel their small children are sick with a cold half the time, that’s backed up by evidence.
Our new…
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By Irini Mavrou, Associate professor, Universidad Nebrija; UCL
Nicola McNab, Researcher and teacher trainer, Universidad Nebrija
Rudeness, whether real or perceived, can deeply affect cooperation, trust, and workplace culture. But judgements of what we consider rude aren’t confined to specific disrespectful words or phrases – they are shaped by the listener’s emotional processing, attention to non-verbal cues, and underlying moral stance.
In multilingual settings this complexity is compounded, as misunderstandings don’t just arise from vocabulary gaps or grammar mistakes. In fact, they often have more to do with ourselves – our own emotional and moral judgements of what others say and do – than the words being…
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By Sheena Cruickshank, Professor in Immunology, University of Manchester
Jonathan Worboys, Research Fellow, Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, Manchester University
A new immunotherapy drug has demonstrated early promise in a recent prostate cancer clinical trial. The drug, called VIR-5500, is a “masked T-cell engager”. This type of immunotherapy ignites our own immune arsenal to fight cancer.
In the trial, which is still in progress and has not yet undergone peer-review, patients with advanced prostate cancer who had failed to respond to other treatments were given VIR-5500. Remarkably, initial findings showed that in the patients who received the highest doses,…
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By Arie Perliger, Director of Security Studies and Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies, UMass Lowell
Geopolitical violence abroad translates into homegrown threats in the US and Canada. Recent antisemitic attacks show how the Jewish community is a target of those threats.
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By David Lewis Thomas, PhD Candidate in Political Theory, University of Sussex
News of the intended removal of Winston Churchill’s image from the five pound note by the Bank of England has outraged some commentators and politicians. Reform UK’s Nigel Farage called it “the definition of woke”. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the plans to replace historical figures with wildlife would be “erasing our history”.
As an anti-counterfeit measure, the Bank of England is replacing the historical figures on the next series of banknotes with wildlife. The wildlife to appear will be chosen after a public consultation.
Technically, of course, removing
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By David Hu, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biology, Adjunct Professor of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology
Analyzing 20 million recorded mosquito flight paths revealed the mathematical rules behind how these tiny predators move and zero in on their human targets.
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