Category: The Conversation

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adam Taylor, Professor of Anatomy, Lancaster University yurakrasil/Shutterstock.com While Halloween offers a chance to embrace all things spooky and supernatural, the real terrors this season aren’t confined to ghost stories. From pumpkin-carved fingers to contact lens infections that can lead to life-threatening heart conditions, the festivities…

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Chloe Ward, Senior Lecturer in the History of British Art, Queen Mary University of London Saturn Devouring His Son by Francisco Goya (1820-1823). Museo del Prado With Halloween approaching, we asked seven of our academic experts to tell us about the most unsettling artwork they’ve ever…

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paty Paliokosta, Associate Professor of Special and Inclusive Education, Kingston University PeopleImages/Shutterstock Plans to reform support for children with special educational needs in England have been delayed after the government announced its new policy would not be unveiled until 2026, rather than autumn 2025. However, there…

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anthony Booker, Reader in Ethnopharmacology, University of Westminster AlexShevchenko78/Shutterstock “Hubble bubble toil and trouble” is a quote from Shakespeare’s Macbeth that conjures images of evil witches making potions in giant cauldrons. But the truth was that women persecuted as witches were probably legitimate healers of the…

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By James Cronin, Professor in Marketing and Consumer Culture Studies, Lancaster University Miljan Zivkovic/Shutterstock Food waste has long been reviled as an immoral, largely preventable feature of our consumer society. An estimated 4.7 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away by households each year in the…

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gemma Ware, Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The Conversation Suspected witches kneeling before James VI in Daemonologie, his 1597 treatise on witches. Wikimedia Commons In the 16th century, witches and demons weren’t just for Halloween. People were terrified and preoccupied with them – even kings. In…

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Samuel Jesse Cox, Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Lecturer in English Literature, University of Tübingen The Rose Field, the third and final volume in Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust trilogy is finally in the hands of his readers. This trilogy accompanies Pullman’s earlier series, His Dark…

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Peter Rutland, Professor of Government, Wesleyan University A new, old specter is haunting the world: the bloodthirsty Anglo-Saxons. Well, that is what the Kremlin wants the world to believe. Take the new Russian state-backed film “Tolerance.” Released in September 2025 to a less than enthusiastic…

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Chee Meng Tan, Assistant Professor of Business Economics, University of Nottingham Electric cars are reliant on rare earth minerals, and most are mined in China. Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock China recently announced that it was putting new controls on the export of rare earth elements, sparking a…

Source: ForeignAffairs4 Source: The Conversation – UK – By Thomas Lockwood, PhD Researcher in Politics, York St John University Plaid Cymru’s overwhelming victory in the recent Caerphilly Senedd byelection shattered over a century of political tradition. Lindsay Whittle took the seat with 15,691 votes. Labour, which had held the seat since it was created, came…