Miriamne Ara Krummel, University of Dayton On Dec. 31, people from cultures all around the world will be raising a toast to welcome in A.D. 2022. Few of them will think about the fact that A.D. signals “anno Domini,” Latin … Continue reading How common is the ‘Common Era?’ How A.D. and C.E. took over counting years
Aaron McGowan, Rochester Institute of Technology If you ask a physicist like me to explain how the world works, my lazy answer might be: “It follows the Standard Model.” The Standard Model explains the fundamental physics of how the universe … Continue reading 2021: a year physicists asked, ‘What lies beyond the Standard Model?’
Carole Haswell, The Open University The forthcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope offers unprecedented new opportunities for astronomers. It’s also a timely opportunity to reflect on what previous generations of telescopes have shown us. Astronomers rarely use their … Continue reading Five of the most exciting telescope pictures of the universe
Alieu Sanneh, University of Missouri-St. Louis The Gambia’s President Adama Barrow has been declared winner of the election held on 4 December. Barrow received around 53% of the vote cast while his closest rival at the polls, Oussainou Darboe, got … Continue reading The Gambia’s 55-year-old marbles voting system is simple but difficult to cheat
Alisa Hass, Middle Tennessee State University and Kelsey Ellis, University of Tennessee On the night of Dec. 10-11, 2021, an outbreak of powerful tornadoes tore through parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois, killing dozens of people and … Continue reading Why the Southern US is prone to December tornadoes
Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University A Sri Lankan working in Pakistan, Priyantha Kumara, was lynched by a mob of hundreds of people on Dec. 3, 2021, over allegations of blasphemy, or sacrilegious act. After being assaulted, he was … Continue reading Understanding the history and politics behind Pakistan’s blasphemy laws
Elin Angharad Thomas, Queen’s University Belfast Deep sea hydrothermal vents harbour some of the most extraordinary species on our planet. Lying at two to three kilometres below the surface, these extreme, insular ecosystems are powered, not by the sunlight-driven photosynthesis … Continue reading Deep-sea mining may wipe out species we have only just discovered
Deborah Whitehead, University of Colorado Boulder What constitutes women’s leadership in religious communities is open to many interpretations. In the U.S., more attention has been given to women’s ordination because of the highly public and visible nature of these roles, … Continue reading Women lead religious groups in many ways – besides the growing number who have been ordained
Albin Wagener, Université de Rennes 2 Spirited public debate over language is a very French passion. So it’s no surprise that when the online edition of Le Robert, the famous French dictionary, chose to include the gender-neutral pronoun “iel” – … Continue reading No need to ‘iel’: why France is so angry about a gender-neutral pronoun
Mauro D’Amato, Karolinska Institutet and Ferdinando Bonfiglio, Karolinska Institutet Do you “go” once a day? Maybe you go twice, or even three times? Or perhaps you only go a few times a week? Yes, we’re talking about pooing. In our … Continue reading How often do you poo? New research shows bowel habits are written in our DNA
Mohammed Abbasi 