10Apr/23

Easter eggs: their evolution from chicken to chocolate

Serin Quinn, University of Warwick

A lot of Easter traditions – including hot cross buns and lamb on Sunday – stem from medieval Christian or even earlier pagan beliefs. The chocolate Easter egg, however, is a more modern twist on tradition.

Chicken eggs have been eaten at Easter for centuries. Eggs have long symbolised rebirth and renewal, making them perfect to commemorate the story of Jesus’ resurrection as well as the arrival of spring.

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10Apr/23

Good Friday Agreement: the early 1990s back-channel between the IRA and British government that made peace possible

Niall Ó Dochartaigh, University of Galway

In February 1990, in the midst of the Troubles, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness publicly invited the British government to reopen a back-channel used during previous phases of contact with the IRA in the 1970s and during the 1981 hunger strike.

If [the British government] think there is something to be lost by stating publicly how flexible they would be, or how imaginative, we are saying they should tell us privately … there is an avenue which they are aware of whereby they can make what imaginative steps they are thinking about known to the Republican movement.

It was a crucial early step on the road to the Good Friday Agreement.

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08Apr/23

NASA’s High-Resolution Air Quality Control Instrument Launches

A NASA instrument to provide unprecedented resolution of monitoring major air pollutants – down to four square miles – lifted off on its way to geostationary orbit at 12:30 a.m. EDT Friday. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument will improve life on Earth by revolutionizing the way scientists observe air quality from space. Continue reading

08Apr/23

A professor is going to live in an underwater hotel for 100 days – here’s what it might do to his body

Bradley Elliott, University of Westminster

As nightmares go, being trapped in a small box deep underwater is probably high on many peoples’ lists. But one US professor is doing this on purpose. Joe Dituri, a former US navy diver and expert in biomedical engineering has been living in a 55 square meter space 30 feet below the surface of the Florida Keys since March 1, and plans to stay for 100 days. If he manages this, he will break a record for most time spent in a habitat beneath the surface of the ocean.

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07Apr/23

TCL PARTNERS WITH ARSENAL TO ENHANCE CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA AND EUROPE

TCL, a Global top 2 TV brand, has announced a new partnership with Arsenal Football Club. The collaboration will give Arsenal supporters in the UK, Middle East and Africa more opportunities to engage with the club, while also increasing TCL’s expanding footprint in sport by becoming the club’s Official Regional Consumer Electronics Partner in those markets.

With a mission to Inspire Greatness, TCL understands the impact sport has on people around the world and the new partnership aims to engage supporters around their common passion for football. Continue reading

06Apr/23

Life: modern physics can’t explain it – but our new theory, which says time is fundamental, might

Sara Imari Walker, Arizona State University

Over the short span of just 300 years, since the invention of modern physics, we have gained a deeper understanding of how our universe works on both small and large scales. Yet, physics is still very young and when it comes to using it to explain life, physicists struggle.

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04Apr/23

Kanye West and Wyndham Lewis: how ‘cancellation’ affected two artists, a century apart

Nathan Waddell, University of Birmingham

It may seem like the modernist painter and writer Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) and Kanye West (the rapper and onetime presidential hopeful now known as Ye) have little in common. But their stories are connected: both are known for making controversial statements about the Nazis.

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