Category: Analysis
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Hobbits of Flores evolved to be small by slowing down growth during childhood, new research on teeth and brain size suggests
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA – By Tesla Monson, Professor of Anthropology, Western Washington University Hobbits are exceptions to the rule that older ancient humans had proportionally larger wisdom teeth and smaller brains. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images Until Homo floresiensis was discovered, scientists assumed that the evolution of the human lineage was…
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‘Your countries are going to hell’: Trump’s UN speech explained by an expert
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By David Curran, Research Fellow: Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding, Coventry University The assembled United Nations dignitaries gave Donald Trump 13 seconds of applause as he approached the podium for his address to the 80th anniversary general debate on September 23. They clapped for 20 seconds when he finished…
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100 years before quantum mechanics, one scientist glimpsed a link between light and matter
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Robyn Arianrhod, Affiliate, School of Mathematics, Monash University MirageC / Getty Images The Irish mathematician and physicist William Rowan Hamilton, who was born 220 years ago last month, is famous for carving some mathematical graffiti into Dublin’s Broome Bridge in 1843. But in his lifetime,…
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What is leucovorin, the drug the Trump administration says can treat autism?
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Nial Wheate, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University The US government has announced controversial guidance on the prevention and treatment of autism in children. New health recommendations aim to discourage pregnant women from taking the painkiller paracetamol – also known as acetaminophen and by…
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What a newly discovered gas bridge between galaxies tells us about the cosmic cycle of matter
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Lister Staveley-Smith, Professor at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), The University of Western Australia A composite image shows a diffuse ‘bridge’ of gas linking two dwarf galaxies. ICRAR, N. Deg, Legacy Surveys (D.Lang / Perimeter Institute) Most of the ordinary matter in…
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Lawsuits, cancellations and bullying: Trump is systematically destroying press freedom
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne Roberto Schmidt/Getty United States President Donald Trump is well advanced in his systematic campaign to undermine the American media and eviscerate its function of holding him and others in power to account.…
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Who are the worst fathers in literature? Our experts make the tough call
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Suzy Freeman-Greene, Books + Ideas Editor, The Conversation Penguin Books, Goodreads, Harper Collins, Text Publishing Literature has long portrayed messed-up families. As poet Philip Larkin famously wrote, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad. / They may not mean to, but they do.” In…
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Facing a shutdown, budget negotiations are much harder because Congress has given Trump power to cut spending through ‘rescission’
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – USA – By Charlie Hunt, Associate Professor of Political Science, Boise State University Will Congress keep the government running? Phil Roeder/Getty Images Congress faces a deadline of Oct. 1 to adopt a spending measure to keep the federal government open. Various reporters will be interviewing serious people saying serious…
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Jane Austen’s real and literary worlds weren’t exclusively white – just read her last book, Sanditon
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Olivia Carpenter, Lecturer in Literature, University of York Jane Austen penned the last sentences of her unfinished manuscript for the novel we know as Sanditon in March 1817 before she died that July. Like me, many Austen fans often stumble upon this work after they have…
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Why you don’t have to block roads or glue yourself to buildings to be a climate activist
Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Bob Walley, Researcher in Climate Change Engagement and Communication, University of Lancashire A protestor outside Preston New Road Fracking Site in Lancashire. Bob Walley, CC BY-NC-ND “Get a job!” shouted yet another driver going past me in the sweeping rain outside Preston New Road fracking site,…