Simon McCarthy-Jones, Trinity College Dublin
The idea of free speech sparked into life 2,500 years ago in Ancient Greece – in part because it served a politician’s interests. The ability to speak freely was seen as essential for the new Athenian democracy, which the politician Cleisthenes both introduced and benefited from.
Sharon Coen, University of Salford
The start of the new year brings inevitable pressure to start fresh, with new hobbies, exercise regimes and healthy diets. But there is one diet you may not have thought of improving this year: your media and news consumption.
Daniel Jolley, University of Nottingham; Andrew McNeill, Northumbria University, Newcastle, and Jenny Paterson, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Scientists have learned a lot about why people believe in conspiracy theories and how they harm society over the past couple of decades. Yet little is known about how the groups targeted by conspiracy theories feel and behave.
Jenny Hamilton, University of Lincoln
Many of us enjoy sitting down to watch a good film because of the way movies can make us feel. A sad film might help us release our emotions or a comedy might lift our mood. Movies can also offer a chance to connect with and explore our emotions in a safe way.
Robin Kramer, University of Lincoln
If there’s one thing we as humans seem to have in common, it’s that most of us have felt lonely at one time or another. But is the pain that comes with feeling socially isolated simply a part of being human? Why does the world seem so different when we’re feeling lonely?
Recent research has begun to provide some answers. And it turns out that loneliness can affect your perception and cognition.
Simon McCarthy-Jones, Trinity College Dublin
The world has witnessed breathtaking advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI), with ChatGPT being one of the best known examples. To prevent harm and misuse of the technology, politicians are now considering regulating AI. Yet they face an overlooked barrier: AI may have a right to free speech.
Natalie Wall, University of Liverpool
If you’ve been in a bookshop recently, you may have seen references to BookTok – whether it’s stickers on books or whole tables dedicated to “BookTok favourites”.
BookTok is a community on the social media app TikTok. Creators make short videos recommending, reviewing, or just generally chatting about books. This community has become one of the biggest on the platform and its hashtag (#BookTok) has been used on over 60 billion videos. BookTok’s influence over the publishing industry and what young people are reading is staggering.
Adam Taylor, Lancaster University
Record-breaking temperatures have been recorded in many countries in 2023. In some parts of Europe, summer temperatures even exceeded 45℃.
While this kind of heat can be uncomfortable, our body is built with many adaptations that help it continue to function when it’s hot.
Sebastian Walsh, University of Cambridge
A prominent childhood memory is of my grandparents living with and then dying from dementia. As is universal with dementia, there was a double blow: watching my grandparents lose their identity and seeing the suffering of those closest to them.
Alpesh Bhudia, Royal Holloway University of London; Anna Cartwright, Oxford Brookes University; Darren Hurley-Smith, Royal Holloway University of London, and Edward Cartwright, De Montfort University
In May 2023, the Dallas City Government was hugely disrupted by a ransomware attack. Ransomware attacks are so-called because the hackers behind them encrypt vital data and demand a ransom in order to get the information decrypted.