By Steve Waters, Professor of scriptwriting and playwright, University of East Anglia
I track my characters from the dog-days of the pandemic to an undisclosed near future where mainstream politics has collapsed and a populist revolt is unleashed.
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By Adam Taylor, Professor of Anatomy, Lancaster University
The sports featured at the Winter Olympics defy gravity and physics. Many competitors move at breakneck speeds down steep, snowy inclines or careen across icy surfaces in a bid to set world records and earn their place on the podium.
But as exciting as these events are for spectators, they also place competitors at serious risk of injury. This is something we have been reminded of after US alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn fractured her leg during a horror crash…
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By Timothy Hearn, Lecturer, University of Cambridge; Anglia Ruskin University
The trend has little direct research, but studies on light, heat and relaxation show why it might help some people.
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By Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham
Tetyana Malyarenko, Professor of International Security, Jean Monnet Professor of European Security, National University Odesa Law Academy
The US president’s plan for Ukraine looks far-fetched and one-sided – but it might buy Volodymyr Zelensky and his allies valuable time.
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By Grace Marks, Graduate Teaching Assistant in History and English Literature, Edge Hill University
The vile Victorians were funnier than they looked, using brutal Valentine’s Day cards to mock people they didn’t fancy much.
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By Tim Penn, Lecturer in Roman and Late Antique Material Culture, University of Reading
Summer Courts, X in Roman archaeology, University of Reading
For ancient Romans, many of the gestures now associated with Valentine’s Day would be unfamiliar, if not completely puzzling. Love and desire were not confined to a single day, nor expressed through standardised tokens of romance. There were no cards written (or forgotten), flowers purchased (at inflated prices) or eateries teaming with lovers. Instead, intimacy was negotiated through daily social encounters, leisure activities and moments of shared experience.
Ancient evidence – texts, art, and material remains – show that games were everywhere in the Roman…
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By Judith Mary Hutchings, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Director Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention, Bangor University
Since the pandemic, more children have been starting school without being “school-ready”.
In 2022-23, 33% of all children starting reception in England did not have the skills needed for success in school, rising to 45% of children receiving free school meals.
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By Chloe Griffin, Research Fellow, School of Ocean & Earth Science, University of Southampton, University of Southampton
Thomas Gernon, Professor in Earth & Climate Science, University of Southampton
To an astronaut today, the Earth looks like a vibrant blue marble from space. But 700 million years ago, it would have looked like a blinding white snowball. This seems an unlikely cradle for life, yet new evidence suggests the frozen ocean featured restricted ice-free oases that provided a lifeline for our earliest complex ancestors.
During the Cryogenian period, from 720 million to 635 million years ago, the Earth was buried by massive ice sheets that marched from the poles to the tropics. Surface…
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By Matt T. Clark, Visiting Research Fellow in Philosophy, University of Leeds
Senior politicians thought Peter Mandelson’s ability to deliver meant they could overlook his behaviour. They should have known the public wouldn’t agree.
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By Nicolas Forsans, Professor of Management and Co-director of the Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Essex
Cuba has reached a breaking point that even its crisis-hardened leadership cannot ignore. It is running out of fuel amid US pressure, having last received oil on January 9 from Mexico. This has prompted airlines such as Air Canada to cancel all flights to Cuba, hitting the tourism lifeline that accounts for most of the island’s foreign currency.
Massive power outages are now routine, and the UN has warned of a possible “humanitarian…
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