Tag Archives: Creative Commons

14May/25

Everyone isn’t ‘a little bit autistic’ – here’s why this notion is harmful

Aimee Grant, Swansea University

I recently had a medical appointment and explained that I’m autistic. It affects how I communicate and understand information, and sometimes I’m misinterpreted as being rude. The person nodded and replied: “Well, everyone’s a little bit autistic.” They then shared something they struggle with, sometimes, when they haven’t had enough sleep.

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13May/25

AI can guess racial categories from heart scans – what it means and why it matters

Tiarna Lee, King’s College London

Imagine an AI model that can use a heart scan to guess what racial category you’re likely to be put in – even when it hasn’t been told what race is, or what to look for. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s real.

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08May/25

Conclave: the chemistry behind the black and white smoke

Mark Lorch, University of Hull

This week, 133 cardinals have gathered in the Vatican to elect a new leader of the Catholic church. During their deliberations, the only indications of their progress are the regular plumes of smoke wafting from a freshly installed chimney perched on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.

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03May/25

Perfect storm of tech bros, foreign interference and disinformation is an urgent threat to press freedom

Tom Felle, University of Galway

Media freedom has long been essential to healthy democracy. It is the oxygen that fuels informed debate, exposes corruption and holds power to account. But around the world, that freedom is under sustained attack.

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28Apr/25

Why the energy transition won’t be green until mine waste disasters are prevented

Eva Marquis, University of Exeter and Karen Hudson-Edwards, University of Exeter

On February 18, contamination in the Kafue river, Zambia, led to a mass death of fish. Its water turned a deathly grey and adjacent farmland was poisoned. The drinking water it supplied to half a million residents of the town of Kitwe was suddenly cut off.

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28Apr/25

People trust legal advice generated by ChatGPT more than a lawyer – new study

Eike Schneiders, University of Southampton; Joshua Krook, University of Southampton, and Tina Seabrooke, University of Southampton

People who aren’t legal experts are more willing to rely on legal advice provided by ChatGPT than by real lawyers – at least, when they don’t know which of the two provided the advice. Continue reading

18Mar/25

High soybean prices in Zambia and Malawi may make chicken costly too: lack of competition is to blame

Arthur Khomotso Mahuma, University of Johannesburg and Namhla Landani, University of Johannesburg

Poultry is one of the cheapest protein sources for the growing population of the east and southern Africa region. That makes soybeans critical to food security in the region, as they are an important input in chicken feed.

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26Dec/24

What does the X exodus to Bluesky mean for journalism

Craig Robertson, University of Oxford

When Elon Musk took over Twitter and changed its name to X, many users vowed to move to another platform. First was talk of a shift to Mastodon that never seemed to catch on. Then Meta tried to make Threads appealing by linking the app to Instagram – but this hasn’t had much cut-through either.

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26Dec/24

Who chooses to work, and who is forced to, after retirement?

Takao Maruyama, University of Bradford and Vincent Charles, Queen’s University Belfast

The state pension age in the UK is currently 66. Yet 9.5% of people aged 66 and older (1.12 million people) were still working, according to the most recent data from the UK’s Annual Population Survey (July 2023 to June 2024). This figure has been rising over the past decade, increasing from 8.70% (880,000 people) in July 2013 to June 2014.

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13Dec/24

What is the drug captagon and how is it linked to Syria’s fallen Assad regime?

Nicole Lee, Curtin University

After the fall of the al-Assad regime in Syria, large stockpiles of the illicit drug captagon have reportedly been uncovered.

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