By Anthony Downey, Professor of Visual Culture, Birmingham City University
Even before the recent protest by a group of well-known musicians at the UK government’s plans to allow AI companies to use copyright-protected work for training, disquiet around artists’ rights was already growing.
In early February, an open…
(Full Story)
|
By Dipa Kamdar, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, Kingston University
If you are trying to stop smoking, you may have heard of nicotine patches or gum to help reduce cravings. But how about nicotine pouches? Small, tobacco-free sachets containing a powder made up of nicotine, flavourings and other additives, nicotine patches are placed between the upper lip and gum to release a nicotine buzz without the damage to lungs.
Nicotine pouches were first introduced to the UK market in 2019. Common brands in the UK include ZYN, Velo and Nordic Spirit. Nicotine pouches are
(Full Story)
|
By Siobhan Mclernon, Senior Lecturer, Adult Nursing and co-lead, Ageing, Acute and Long Term Conditions. Member of Health and Well Being Research Center, London South Bank University
As a nurse working in a neurocritical care, I witnessed the sudden and devastating effects of stroke on survivors and their carers.
Following my nursing career, I became a researcher specialising in stroke. Knowledge of stroke risk factors in the general public is poor, so stroke prevention is a priority for public health.
Stroke is
(Full Story)
|
By Benjamin Padilla-Morales, Postdoctoral Researcher of Bioinformatics, University of Bath
A longstanding question in evolutionary biology is how sexual selection influences how entire genomes develop. Sexual selection is where individuals with certain traits have higher reproductive success, leading to the spread of those traits throughout a species.
A study by me and my colleagues at the Milner Centre for Evolution has uncovered a significant link between the difference in body size between males and females – known as sexual size dimorphism (SSD) – and genetic changes in mammals. These findings provide…
(Full Story)
|
By Christina Philippou, Associate Professor in Accounting and Sport Finance, University of Portsmouth
The women’s rugby side Gloucester-Hartpury have had a pretty good season. On March 16 they won their third Premiership Women’s Rugby Championship in a row, beating Saracens 31-19 in the final.
But the sport as a whole is enjoying an impressive run too. Fellow Premiership side Harlequins broke the world attendance record for a women’s rugby…
(Full Story)
|
By Francesco Grillo, Academic Fellow, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University
European nations are caught in a conversation about spending as a percentage of GDP instead of focusing on what to do with the money.
(Full Story)
|
By Joanna Moncrieff, Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry, UCL
Susan McPherson, Professor in Psychology and Sociology, Deputy Director Institute for Public Health and Wellbeing, University of Essex
Speaking on BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Wes Streeting, the UK health secretary, expressed concerns that some mental health conditions were overdiagnosed. The Conversation asked two experts to comment on Streeting’s claim. Is the health secretary right?
Mental distress is under-diagnosed – but over-medicalised
Susan McPherson, Professor in Psychology and Sociology, University of Essex
A year ago, the UK’s then prime minister, the Conservative Rishi Sunak, announced “sick…
(Full Story)
|
By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition
A graph I saw in high school appeared to show the Earth breathing.
It was a graph that plotted carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. CO₂ had risen steadily, and then more rapidly, but it hadn’t gone up in a straight line. Each year it had fallen sharply before rising to a new peak, increasing over time in an upwards zig-zag.
What explained this annual, temporary fall in CO₂, the gas that is overwhelmingly responsible for climate change? The answer was photosynthesis, my physics teacher explained – the miracle by which plants…
(Full Story)
|
By Patrick Parenteau, Professor of Law Emeritus, Vermont Law & Graduate School
The Trump administration’s goal is to roll back rules limiting planet-warming greenhouse gases emissions from power plants, vehicles and oil and gas production, but it could backfire for industry.
(Full Story)
|
By Michele Testoni, Professor of International Relations, IE University
The second Trump administration has seen an aggressive restoration of “big stick” foreign policy. In just two months, Trump has already sparked trade wars with Canada, Mexico and the EU, threatened to annex Greenland and pull the US out of NATO, opened negotiations with Russia to reach a cease-fire in Ukraine, and suspended military aid to Kyiv.
Understandably, this posture is cause for alarm across European states, who have now made continent-wide rearmament a top priority. On 4th March the European Commission…
(Full Story)
|