Comedian, performer, and writer Robin Ince has been asking questions about the world around him for as long as he can remember. Perhaps most famous for his radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage which he co-hosts on BBC Radio 4 with Professor Brian Cox, Ince has been bringing science to the masses in new and hilarious ways since the 90s. In this interview with our sister publication, Research Features , we discover what it's like performing 'science' at Glastonbury, why people may be frightened of ...
Mar 12, 2025•1 hr 6 min
In this International Women’s Day episode, we chat to Professor Gene Feder OBE, Professor of Primary Care at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, Bristol Medical School, about the Healthcare Responding to Violence and Abuse (HERA) programme. For the past five years, HERA has been co-developing and testing women-centered and culturally-appropriate domestic violence and abuse (DVA) healthcare interventions in low-and middle-income countries – Brazil, Nepal, occupied Palestinian territories and Sr...
Mar 05, 2025•17 min
Humans are social creatures; we live in family groups, socialise with friends, and work with colleagues both in person and online. Yet, how many friends do you really have? Evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar says it won’t be more than 150. Proposed in the 1990s, ‘Dunbar’s number’ puts a limit on the number of stable relationships humans can maintain at any given time, and his ‘social brain hypothesis’ suggests that brain size is directly related to social group size in mammals. In ...
Feb 26, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Humanity is overwhelmed by planetary tragedies: climate crisis, widespread hunger, desertification, migrations, destruction of biodiversity, corruption and many more. They are out of control because they are too complex for common-sense approaches like analysis and committees. But now there are grounds for hope. Dr Alfredo del Valle’s method, ‘Participatory Innovation Praxis’, can make tragedies governable through new forms of social interaction, fostering ‘strong participation’ and ‘future-buil...
Feb 19, 2025•10 min
In Switzerland, young adults face major challenges when transitioning from school to the workplace—especially those with special educational needs. How can peer support help them navigate career choices and build resilience? Professors Claudia Schellenberg and Annette Krauss explore this question through the Empower Peers 4 Careers project, and examine how structured peer discussions can foster social-emotional skills, strengthen community, and support students’ career development. Read the orig...
Feb 12, 2025•11 min
In East Asia, high marriage rates coexist with some of the world’s lowest fertility rates. So, why are so few children born in these societies? And how is this related to the strongly embedded cultural and Confucianist influences? Professors Sunha Myong, Jungjae Park, and Junjian Yi investigate the cultural and socioeconomic factors shaping these trends. Using a mathematical model, the team explore how deeply rooted social norms – like unequal childcare and stigma against out-of-wedlock births –...
Feb 05, 2025•11 min
The knowledge gained during the COVID-19 pandemic and other health emergencies could prove invaluable for devising responses to and planning for future health crises. Dr Landry Ndriko Mayigane and Dr Stella Chungong from the Health Security Preparedness Department of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergency Programme recently devised the ‘Nuggets’ of Knowledge (NoK) platform , an open-source platform, to facilitate effective knowledge management and knowledge continuity during health eme...
Jan 29, 2025•11 min
Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is a vital enzyme in the immune system, with the potential to revolutionise antiseptics and cancer therapy. Professor Robert C. Allen has developed MPO-based antiseptics effective in blood which are systemically safe, while also demonstrating selective anticancer properties. Together with Jackson T. Stephens, the work overcomes obstacles to bring these therapies into widespread use, offering promising solutions for infection control and bladder cancer treatment. Read more i...
Jan 22, 2025•7 min
Hybrid psychological agents and transformative hybrid contexts offer new ways to bridge cultural divides, foster inclusion, and drive social change. Dr. Beatriz Macías-Gómez-Estern from Universidad Pablo de Olavide investigates hybrid learning spaces where diverse cultural, social, and institutional worlds connect. From service-learning projects with Roma communities to community music initiatives, her work highlights the transformative potential of collaboration, co-construction, and empathy in...
Jan 16, 2025•11 min
Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with treatment responses varying widely among patients. Dr. Carminia Maria Della Corte from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is at the forefront of research into using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to identify immune biomarkers. Her work explores the cGAS/STING pathway, DDR gene mutations, and advanced 3D tumour models, offering insight into predicting immunotherapy responses and tailoring treatments...
Jan 15, 2025•11 min
Memory is a problem for many people as they age. To combat this, wearable devices may help older adults recall precious memories through what is called 'life-logging', despite these technologies raising significant privacy concerns. Researchers at Singapore Management University, led by Thivya Kandappu, have developed PrivacyPrimer , a tool designed to protect sensitive information captured by wearable cameras. Their approach uses selective image obfuscation to safeguard privacy, while preservin...
Jan 08, 2025•9 min
While we may associate Messenger RNA (mRNA for short) with the COVID-19 pandemic vaccination programme, its study in fact began over 60 years ago. Born in 1955 in rural Hungary, Katalin Karikó battled critics and scepticism for her research into mRNA for over 30 years before its role in the COVID-19 vaccination programme gained her recognition and, in 2023, a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In this interview, Karikó tells us about this journey and why she loves biochemistry, what it’s lik...
Dec 18, 2024•27 min
While the management of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is guided by recurrence risk assessment, current methods cannot accurately predict disease recurrence. Professor Oliver Bathe and his collaborators at the University of Calgary, Canada, have developed a test that includes genetic data linked to recurrence. Together, they identified three molecular PTC subtypes, allowing more accurate risk assessment to guide clinical decision-making and treatment. Read more in Research Features Read the orig...
Dec 16, 2024•10 min
The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for governments and their global stakeholders to reform the management processes of infectious disease outbreaks. Dr Stella Chungong and Dr Landry Ndriko Mayigane of the Health Security Preparedness Department of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme are encouraging countries to implement early action reviews (EARs) for disease outbreaks to assess their vigilance and planning, the responsiveness of their health systems, and to bette...
Dec 13, 2024•12 min
Almost every city in the modern world faces the difficult challenge of understanding its citizens’ opinions and turning them into meaningful decisions. Miloš Švaňa, a PhD student at Technical University of Ostrava, has decided to focus on this topic in his dissertation, with an aim to develop a framework for social media data analysis. By using fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory to help municipalities understand the needs of their citizens, Švaňa uses this information to inform better decision mak...
Dec 11, 2024•13 min
The actions of humans are typically influenced by societal norms and mainstream trends that are passed down from generation to generation, shaping our life choices and behavioural patterns. Jean-Paul Close, founder of the STIR Foundation and AiREAS, experienced the breaking of heritage and the revival of core human values first-hand, after he chose to resign from an international executive job at a multinational company to stay close to his children. In his recent publications, he reflects on th...
Dec 09, 2024•8 min
Joint manipulation, applying a manipulation force to the spine to improve joint mobility and reduce pain, often comes with an audible pop. Patients and some practitioners often regard this audible sound as a sign of a successful treatment, but is that necessarily true? Dr Rob Sillevis at Florida Gulf Coast University conducted a comprehensive investigation to find out whether this audible pop has a clinical significance and an actual or perceived benefit on the body. Read the original article: h...
Dec 06, 2024•10 min
We increasingly rely on electronic communications across society. You may have heard privacy protection methods for those messages, such as end-to-end encryption. However, can that protection be guaranteed against governments, industries or bad actors? How can we ensure privacy, but at the same time have the means to enforce laws and prevent malicious behaviour, and how do we develop cryptography law? Professor Moti Yung and colleagues at the Privacy, Security, and Safety Research Group at Googl...
Dec 02, 2024•10 min
Helium nanodroplets are fascinating objects that can be used as microscopic laboratories to form new types of nanomaterials. Researchers in COSY COST Action’s Working Group 4 , which recently celebrated its second anniversary, combine quantum, semiclassical and classical methods to investigate the physico-chemical properties of these droplets under extremely well-controlled conditions Visit their site: https://cost-cosy.eu/ Read the original research: https://doi.org/10.1039/D3CP00489A https://d...
Nov 27, 2024•9 min
A nanoparticle is a tiny particle typically in the size range of one to one hundred nanometres. Nano-scale systems can exhibit unique quantum mechanical properties due to their size. The European Association for Cooperation in Science and Technology, which recently celebrated its second anniversary, focuses on the science of confined molecular systems . In this episode, we hear about their works to uncover the properties and behaviours of metal nanoparticles and clusters. Visit their site: https...
Nov 20, 2024•14 min
On most days, a weather forecast is a convenient answer to simple questions, like : do I need an umbrella? How windy will it be? For high stakes questions around landslide hazards, how do we deal with slope failure forecast? And are there any new tools improving our capabilities without waiting to learn from another disaster? Andrea Manconi, research scientist at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF joins us to discuss new satellite dataand methods to get ahead of the next slope...
Nov 18, 2024•27 min
Osteoarthritis is the most common disease in the world, characterised by the progressive degeneration of cartilage in the joints. Dr Torbjörn Ogéus from the Stockholms led- & smärtspecialist clinic in Sweden, who is pioneering regenerative medicine approaches to treating osteoarthritis using patients’ stem cells. These treatments show significant improvements in pain and joint function, with possible cartilage regeneration, offering a potential cure and vast improvement in the quality of lif...
Nov 13, 2024•14 min
Transportation is a key part of our life, either travelling ourselves or in transporting goods. Fossil fuels are still the most widely applied fuel for transportation purposes, given that the vast majority of engines are traditional combustion engines. The harmful emissions from these engines are well researched, and their direct or indirect contributions to climate change are well documented. Alternative fuels from renewable sources such as biomass can be part of the solution. Dr Ruoyang Yuan a...
Nov 08, 2024•11 min
For millennia, humans and horses have enjoyed a special relationship. Recent research shows that working with horses can improve human mental health and wellbeing. Professor Ann Hemingway is part of a multidisciplinary team that has demonstrated that equine-assisted services can improve outcomes for families impacted by domestic abuse and mitigate the conditions that fuel it, and believes that the benefits of such an intervention could be delivered through virtual reality technology. Read the or...
Nov 06, 2024•11 min
We humans share over 99% of our DNA with each other. This means personalised therapies for diseases such as cancer or neurodegenerative conditions have to be tailored to the most minute differences between us - or even between our own cells. Professor Mark Ebbert of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky leads a lab focusing on isoforms of RNA - tiny, short lived molecules - that could open whole new avenues for detection, diagnosis, and treatments of otherwise incurable...
Nov 06, 2024•27 min
‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers’ – King Henry’s speech to rouse his troops before the Battle of Agincourt is one of the most famous in Shakespeare. But what does ‘Henry V’ tell us about theories of war in Elizabethan England? Professor Anne-Marie Walkowicz of Ohio’s Central State University in the USA argues that the play explores the just war tradition – the counsel rulers should seek before engaging in military action – and class conflict. Read more in Research Outreach Read the ori...
Nov 01, 2024•10 min
What happens when CEOs are shielded by employment and severance agreements? Researchers from Singapore Management University, University of Hong Kong, Boston College, and led by Dr. Xia Chen put forward this critical question. The study investigates how CEO contractual protection impacts corporate debt contracting. With insights from a comprehensive analysis of loans from major publicly traded companies, the team explore how these protections can influence CEO behavior, risk-taking, and the fina...
Oct 30, 2024•10 min
As part of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, or COST Action, Working Group 2 of the COSY network focuses on developing efficient methods for describing the motion of molecules in confined systems. Their work covers four key areas, ranging from toxic gas separation to tumour biomarker detection. Find out more about the COSY COST Action network on cost-cosy.eu Read the original research: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sstr.202400147 https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CP04...
Oct 28, 2024•11 min
CBD has emerged as a non-psychoactive agent in cannabis, stimulating a boom of boutique cannabis products into the medicinal and adult use markets . The innovative CannaMetrix EC50 Array™ offers a solution to traditional chemical methods of testing cannabis potency, which often fall short in accurately capturing the complex interactions between cannabinoids and the human body. Find more at https://cannametrix.org/ Read more in Research Outreach...
Oct 23, 2024•15 min
The global business landscape has undergone a profound transformation in recent decades. As sustainability, energy transition, and climate change have taken center stage, the need for a paradigm shift in strategic management has become increasingly apparent. Jean Garner Stead and Edward Stead from East Tennessee State University argue that traditional strategic management models, particularly the Porterian models, are no longer sufficient in the face of modern challenges. They emphasize the nece...
Oct 21, 2024•12 min
