Lindsay Bottoms, University of Hertfordshire A cold shower in the morning is a pretty unpleasant way to start the day. Yet many have been tempted to take up the habit because being immersed in cold water has many purported health … Continue reading Cold showers are said to be good for you – here’s what the evidence shows
. Yaël Nazé, Université de Liège Les images du télescope spatial Hubble, devenues des icônes, ont fait son succès auprès du public. Ces superbes clichés soulèvent beaucoup de questions auprès du public : on me demande souvent s’il s’agit de « vraies » … Continue reading Comment sont façonnées les fabuleuses images du télescope Hubble
. Victoria Honeyman, University of Leeds The scenes as American and British troops withdrew from Afghanistan were heartbreaking. People desperate to leave the country they love, offering up their children for transportation to a more peaceful country, being crushed to … Continue reading Global Britain is becoming a stooge of the US
Hossam Metwally case: how exorcism can become a cover for domestic abuse Helen Hall, Nottingham Trent University The sentencing of Hossam Metwally for poisoning his partner, Kelly Wilson, in a series of “exorcisms” was always likely to attract attention. The former … Continue reading How exorcism can become a cover for domestic abuse
How a team of musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony Ahmed Elgammal, Rutgers University When Ludwig von Beethoven died in 1827, he was three years removed from the completion of his Ninth Symphony, a work heralded by many as his magnum opus. He had started work on his 10th Symphony but, due to deteriorating health, wasn’t able to make much headway: All he left behind were some musical sketches. Ever since then, Beethoven fans and musicologists have puzzled and lamented over what could have been. His notes teased at some magnificent reward, albeit one that seemed forever out … Continue reading Beethoven’s 10th Symphony
Folahanmi Aina, King’s College London The Sahel region, an area covering 3 million sq km, has been a hotbed of Islamic Jihadi groups in recent years. Today, the region has no fewer than seven insurgent groups scattered in six countries. The area stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean and encompasses a dozen countries. These include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. Jihadi groups have taken advantage of a number of underlying conditions, which fuel local grievances across the Sahel. These include endemic poverty, inequality, high unemployment levels, … Continue reading Mapping the contours of Jihadist groups in the Sahel
Alice Gorman, Flinders University On October 5, an unusual crew will fly to the International Space Station. Director Klim Shipenko and actor Yulia Peresild will spend a week and a half on the station shooting scenes for the Russian movie Challenge. Peresild plays a surgeon who must conduct a heart operation on a sick cosmonaut. This is an exciting — if controversial — development for the station, which orbits around 400 km above Earth. Commercial use of its facilities could be a funding avenue to keep it in orbit. A Japanese documentary and an American movie, starring Tom Cruise, are … Continue reading From poo politics to rubbish disposal: 5 big questions about the International Space Station becoming a movie set
Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University After its return to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban are again imposing their religious ideology, with restrictions on women’s rights and other repressive measures. They are presenting to the world an image of Islam that is intolerant and at odds with social changes. Islam, however, has multiple interpretations. A humanitarian interpretation, focusing on “rahmah,” loosely translated as love and compassion, has been emphasized by a group I have studied – Nahdlatul Ulama, which literally means “Reawakening of the Islamic Scholars.” Nahdlatul Ulama, or NU, was founded in 1926 in reaction to the Saudi … Continue reading How the world’s biggest Islamic organization drives religious reform in Indonesia – and seeks to influence the Muslim world
Sarah R. Olutola, Lakehead University Rapper and pop singer Nicki Minaj made headlines after her Sept. 13 tweet about her as-of-yet unidentified cousin’s friend in Trinidad, who was dumped at the altar by his wife-to-be because “the vaccine” — presumably for COVID-19 — allegedly made his testicles swell. Trinidad and Tobago’s health minister said two days later the claim was debunked after being investigated. MSNBC political commentator Joy Reid expressed concern for Minaj’s 22 million Twitter followers, arguing Minaj used her platform “to put people in the position of dying from a disease they don’t have to die from.” Speaking … Continue reading Nicki Minaj’s COVID-19 vaccine tweet about swollen testicles signals the dangers of celebrity misinformation and fandom
The organised crime gangs of Merseyside Robert Hesketh, Liverpool John Moores University Like many urban areas in the UK, Merseyside has a long and notorious history of street gangs. From the Cornermen and High Rip gangs of the 19th century, to the Croxteth Crew, Nogga Dogs and Moss Edz, the self-perceived North Face “Scouse Soldiers” of today, all have left a dark and deadly legacy. As someone who has always lived on a former Merseyside council housing estate in Knowsley, one of the most socially excluded and poverty-stricken areas in the UK, and an academic whose research has focused on youth … Continue reading Scouse Soldiers:
Mohammed Abbasi 