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.
Jenny Bulstrode, UCL and Sheray Warmington, UCL
In a speech to mark Unesco’s campaign for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, UN secretary-general António Guterres told the United Nations general assembly earlier this year that the inequalities created by 400 years of the transatlantic chattel trade persist to this day. “We can draw a straight line from the centuries of colonial exploitation to the social and economic inequalities of today,” he said.
Madeline Sprajcer, CQUniversity Australia and Sally Ferguson, CQUniversity Australia
After a long day, you flop onto the sofa and find yourself dozing off while watching TV. The room is nice and warm, the sofa is comfortable, and the background noise of the TV lulls you to sleep.
Then a loved one nudges you awake and reminds you to go sleep – in bed. But when you get there, you find to your frustration that you’re wide awake.
Why does sleep come so easily on the sofa but not always in bed?
Leslie Hallam, Lancaster University
Alas, poor Twitter; we knew it well. Or, at least, we thought we did. Despite never occupying more than 10% of social media’s online presence, western audiences are very aware of the platform. That’s not least because of the way that the mass media echoes and amplifies the controversies and outrage born on Twitter.
Zara Molphy, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
Having dipped somewhat during the pandemic, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the rise again around the world. In England and Ireland in 2022, rates of chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis exceeded levels recorded before COVID. The number of gonorrhoea diagnoses recorded in England was in fact the highest since annual records began.
Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian, University of Cambridge; Christelle Langley, University of Cambridge; Chun Shen, Fudan University, and Jianfeng Feng, Fudan University
As most parents of teenagers are acutely aware, there comes a time when children start prioritising their friends over their parents. While young children rely on their parents for social interactions and influences, there’s a notable switch during adolescence, where the influence from peers and friends becomes more important.