Category: Analysis
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How different mushrooms learned the same psychedelic trick
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Fabrizio Alberti, Associate Professor in Life Sciences, University of Warwick Cannabis_Pic/Shutterstock Magic mushrooms have been used in traditional ceremonies and for recreational purposes for thousands of years. However, a new study has found that mushrooms evolved the ability to make the same psychoactive substance twice. The…
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The UK has a regional inequality problem – levelling the playing field for entrepreneurs could help
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Colin Mason, Emeritus Professor of Entrepreneurship and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow Monster Ztudio/Shutterstock Regional inequality is a long-standing problem in the UK that successive governments haven’t been able to get to grips with. The Labour government is aiming for…
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Dams for development? Unpacking tensions in the World Bank’s hydropower policies
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Barnaby Joseph Dye, Lecturer, King’s College London Dams have been emblematic of the World Bank’s approach to development for many decades. From the bank’s early years in the 1960s and 1970s, large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams, power plants and transport networks were central to its…
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The smartphone in Saudi Arabia: between women’s empowerment and surveillance
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – France – By Hélène Bourdeloie, Sociologue, maîtresse de conférences en sciences de l’information et de la communication à l’université Sorbonne Paris Nord et chercheuse au LabSIC et associée au Centre Internet et Société (CIS– CNRS), Université Sorbonne Paris Nord In January 2019, the plight of Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun captured global…
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Bacchae is bold first choice for National Theatre’s new director
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Will Shüler, Vice-Dean of Education and Senior Lecturer, School of Performing and Digital Arts, Royal Holloway University of London Warning: this article contains spoilers. Indhu Rubasingham has begun her tenure as the director of the National Theatre with her production of Bacchae, playwright Nima Taleghani’s new…
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Tariffs may bring a US$50 billion monthly boost to the US government. But ordinary Americans won’t feel the benefit
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jiao Wang, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Sussex Business School, University of Sussex Sundry Photography/Shutterstock Donald Trump’s recent state visit to the UK ended without the removal of steel tariffs, which the host nation had been hoping for. For months, the US president’s array of…
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My voyage to explore how Marshallese sailors find their way at sea without technology
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Maria Ahmad, PhD Candidate, Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL Indigenous Marshallese sailor Clansey Takia. Chewy Lin, CC BY-NC-ND One of the biggest navigation challenges is knowing where you are in the open ocean without tools or devices. This remarkable skill is exemplified by the…
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‘See you in Valhalla’: how the FBI director waded into the far-right’s obsession with the Vikings
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tom Birkett, Professor of Old English and Old Norse, University College Cork Arthur Szyk, Valhalla, from The Nibelungen Series (New York, 1942) The Arthur Szyk Society, Burlingame, CA, CC BY-SA At a press conference announcing that the suspect in the shooting of Charlie Kirk had been…
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Labour to revive maintenance grants and further education – but can it improve skills and social mobility at the same time?
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Helena Gillespie, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Inclusion and Professor of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, University of East Anglia Harbucks/Shutterstock Keir Starmer’s recent speech at the Labour conference placed the UK at a “fork in the road”, telling the audience that there is…
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Charlie Kirk’s legacy is the beneficiary of empathy, but he couldn’t stand the term
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Jane Barter, Professor, Department of Religion and Culture, University of Winnipeg The grief that attended American political activist Charlie Kirk’s murder was not solely poured out by the political right. Liberal commentators also participated; journalist Ezra Klein expressed grief in an essay for The New York…