By Jack Shelbourn, Senior Lecturer and Director of Photography, University of Lincoln
Millions of us unwind with reality television. It’s comforting, social and, when the format is good, brilliantly engineered drama. But there’s an invisible carbon cost to all that escapism.
Plenty of attention has been paid to the carbon footprint of big Hollywood productions, but less so to unscripted TV. Yet the key emitters are similar: travel, energy and materials.
The British Film Institute’s Screen…
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By Bran Nicol, Professor of English, University of Surrey
From HBO drama Succession to Netflix reality show Selling Sunset, TV depictions of work tend to treat it as a vehicle for social betterment rather than a means to survival. The Chinese writer Hu Anyan’s arresting memoir, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, just published in an English translation, provides an alternative perspective.
The book began life as a lockdown blog post about its author’s experiences in a logistics warehouse. When it went viral, he reshaped it into a book about his time working as a courier…
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By Christopher Saville, Clinical Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology and Sport Science, Bangor University
Research suggests many young adults do not understand the difference between stopping air and stopping blood flow to the brain.
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By Lewis Eves, Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham
Tensions are rising between China and Japan again over a dispute in the East China Sea. Such tensions are usually over the Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited chain administered by Japan but claimed by China. The current row, however, stems from international anxiety over a possible Chinese invasion of democratically ruled Taiwan.
On November 17, in her first parliamentary address since taking office in October, Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi suggested…
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By Natalia Zwarts, Research Leader in Wargaming at RAND Europe, RAND Europe
Ondrej Palicka, Junior researcher, RAND Europe
Consider the following scenario. There’s a ransomware attack, enhanced by AI, which paralyses NHS systems – delaying medical care across the country.
Simultaneously, deepfake videos circulate online, spreading false information about the government’s response. At the same time, a foreign power quietly manipulates critical mineral markets to exert pressure on the economy.
The scenario is not just a theory. It is a situation waiting to be rehearsed. And research suggests an old tool called wargaming…
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By Malcolm Claus, Senior Lecturer, Astronautics and Space Technology, Kingston University
An experimental supersonic aircraft called the X-59 took to the skies for the first time in October.
The plane lifted off from Skunk Works, the famed research and development facility in California owned by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. It cruised for about an hour, before landing at Edwards Air Force Base 85 miles (136km) away.
Nasa’s X-59 is designed to test technology for quiet supersonic flight. In the US, loud sonic…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Flags of the EU and AU, photographed during the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the European Union and the African Union in Brussels, May 21, 2025. / Photographed on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office. Photo by: Florian Gaertner/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images. © (Nairobi, November 21, 2025) – The African Union (AU) and European Union should put respect for human rights and international humanitarian law at the center of their partnership, Human Rights Watch said today ahead of the blocs’ seventh summit on November 24-25, 2025, in Luanda, Angola. Both…
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By Charlotte Goodburn, Reader in Chinese Politics and Development, King's College London
The UK government is promoting its plan for a new digital identity scheme as a way to streamline services, prevent fraud and ensure that welfare benefits reach only those entitled to them. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, has argued that digital ID is central to modernising the welfare state and tightening immigration controls.
On his recent trip to India, Starmer praised the country’s Aadhaar programme, the world’s largest digital ID system, as a “massive success”. The UK government has
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By Harmehak Singh, PhD Candidate in Psychology, Liverpool Hope University
If you want to use your mindset to change your eating experience, you first need to understand what research has told us about psychology and food.
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By Kevin Munro, Ewing Professor of Audiology, University of Manchester
If the NHS recommended it, would people test their own hearing at home and use self-fitting hearing aids?
A survey of over 2,000 adults found that nine in every ten said yes, they’d be willing to test their own hearing. Most also said they’d try a hearing aid sent by the NHS – either ready programmed or requiring them to set it up themselves.
Currently, the NHS route involves GPs referring patients for a face-to-face appointment…
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