Sharkathon 2017 is here: How to watch it like a scientist

By George Burgess

Just when you thought it was safe to turn on your television, the Discovery Channels Shark Week and National Geographic Wilds SharkFest are hitting the air with competing daily programming. As director of the Florida...

From self-driving cars to Zoomtubes: an expert imagines the evolution of transport in Mega City One

By Guy Walker

Each year, more than 100,000 people descend on San Diego for Comic-Con International. The largest annual comic and pop culture convention in the world. San Diego Comic-Con offers fans a chance to immerse themselves in the...

Why the advertising industry should cheer new rules on gender stereotypes

By Karen Middleton

Britains advertising watchdog is introducing tough new standards, which could ban adverts which feature potentially harmful gender stereotypes. This could not have come at a better time for the industry. Companies have...

Bleached girls: India and its love for light skin

By Neha Mishra Et Al

Lets scrub out that tan is a common refrain in beauty parlours in India, where girls grow up with constant reminders that only fair skin is beautiful. From Sunday classified ads touting the marriageability of an MBA...

Both franchisees and franchisors benefit from company-owned stores

By Maurice Roussety

Some franchisees of hardware chain Mitre 10 are calling for an end to company-owned stores. These are stores owned and run by Metcash, which owns the Mitre 10 brand and is a supplier to the franchisees. But research...

If the UK is going to make more people retire later, it needs to get creative

By Jane Parry

The UK government has made a surprise announcement that the rise in state pension age to 68 is to be phased in from 2037, instead of 2044. Made just days before the end of an unusually troubled parliamentary session, it is...

Is austerity really to blame for stalling life expectancy in England?

By Richard Faragher

Over the 20th century, life expectancy in the UK increased from 46 to 76 years. But since 2010, that rate of increase is close to having ground to a halt. At any point in living memory this finding would cause serious...

Emmanuel Macron is already showing he is no progressive

By Fraser McQueen

At the Vel dHiv commemoration ceremony on July 16, Frances new president Emmanuel Macron insisted that France must acknowledge its responsibility for deporting thousands of Jews to concentration camps during World War II....

Brexit lessons from Britain's 19th century push for free trade

By Anthony Howe

As Britain prepares to enter what have been widely described as the most complex negotiations in recent history, politicians and civil servants dealing with Brexit can look to the 19th century for inspiration when it comes...

Lions and lambs: can you solve this classic game theory puzzle?

By Amirlan Seksenbayev

How many lions does it take to kill a lamb? The answer isnt as straightforward as you might think. Not, at least, according to game theory. Game theory is a branch of maths that studies and predicts decision-making. It...

Who's who in the Godfather version of Trump's White House

By Martin Carter

The never-ending scandals surrounding the Trump administration reached hysterical levels recently with the allegation that in 2016 Trumps eldest son, Donald Jr., met with Russians allegedly linked with the Kremlin to...

Why the US doesn't understand Chinese thought – and must

By Bryan W. Van Norden

The need for the U.S. to understand China is obvious. The Chinese economy is on track to become the largest in the world by 2030, Chinese leadership may be the key to resolving the nuclear crisis with North Korea and China...

Why the US's 1994 deal with North Korea failed – and what Trump can learn from it

By Maria Ryan

After more than two decades of testing, North Korea finally has a missile that is powerful enough to deliver a nuclear warhead to US territory that is, to Alaska and/or Hawaii, if estimates are to be believed. This is an...

Where the boundaries lie in workplace relationships

By Paul Harpur

In recent weeks two prominent news stories have highlighted workplace romances blowing up into costly public scandals. The romantic relationship between CEO of Seven West Media, Tim Worner, and former executive assistant...

How history can challenge the narrative of blame for homelessness

By Anne O'Brien

Homelessness is a pressing humanitarian problem one that is increasingly in the public eye. The evictions, protests, personal histories and statistical profiles of people experiencing it appear regularly in the...

How we think about our past experiences affects how we can help others

By Adam Gerace

Have you ever told a friend experiencing a troubling situation I know exactly how you feel? This empathic response is usually driven by a connection weve made with our own similar experiences. Having been there, we...

Inaction on climate change risks leaving future generations $530 trillion in debt

By James Dyke

By continuing to delay significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, we risk handing young people alive today a bill of up to US$535 trillion. This would be the cost of the negative emissions technologies required to...

Populism is splitting Britain but it could herald change for Wales

By Huw L Williams

Split over Brexit, austerity and its place in the world, an unconventional situation has emerged in Britain: both the ruling party and the main opposition have adopted populist politics. Populism traditionally pits the...

A new vaccine is promising to advance the frontier of eliminating malaria

By Simon Kariuki

More than 30 malaria vaccine candidates are at various stages of development. The RTS,S vaccine is at the most advanced stage. The World Health Organisation has recommended the introduction of the vaccine in Ghana,...

A spate of acid attacks in London is part of an international problem

By Brett Edwards Et Al

A series of five acid attacks in one night in London has created a moment for the British government to take a more public stance on this growing problem. A teenager has been charged with 15 offences relating to the...

The gig economy is nothing new – it was standard practice in the 18th century

By Tawny Paul

The Taylor Report, the UK governments recent major review of modern work, paid particular attention to the gig economy. This is the idea that the traditional model of work where people often have a clear career...

Could talking help tackle organised crime?

By Xavier L'Hoiry Et Al

Organised criminals are often portrayed in media and popular culture as ruthless, violent and intent on making money at all costs. Think The Godfather, or the Kray twins. But these stereotypes are unhelpful and often dont...

'Chinks in the world machine' – on the casting of the 13th Doctor Who

By Una McCormack

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who dreamed of going into space. She would sit on the floor in the library, cross-legged on the carpet before a big shelf of books and read about a machine that could travel in...

Putin’s opening gambit in the new Great Game outfoxes Trump

By Gregory Stiles

The budding relationship between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg was the crowning image of a fractious gathering of world leaders. Yet the promise that an...

Can tourism alleviate global poverty?

By Susanne Becken

Wouldnt it be great if something as simple and pleasurable as international travel could help end something as grinding and enduring as global poverty? After all, the industry is booming, growing at least 4% a year since...

The strange links between intelligence and prejudice

By Nick Haslam

Human judgement often becomes less accurate when we train it on ourselves. Self appraisals commonly flatter our strengths and minimise our weaknesses. The average man overstates his height by 1.2cm and the average woman...

Human noise pollution is disrupting parks and wild places

By Rachel Buxton

As transportation networks expand and urban areas grow, noise from sources such as vehicle engines is spreading into remote places. Human-caused noise has consequences for wildlife, entire ecosystems and people. It reduces...

The real costs of cheap surveillance

By Jonathan Weinberg

Surveillance used to be expensive. Even just a few years ago, tailing a persons movements around the clock required rotating shifts of personnel devoted full-time to the task. Not any more, though. Governments can track...

Four charts that show who loses out if the White House cut food stamps

By Orgul Demet Ozturk

The White House has proposed cutting 25 percent of SNAPs budget about US$193 billion over the next decade. SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, though its more widely known by its pre-2008 name,...

Why Trump's threat to slap tariffs on foreign steel is a bad idea

By William Hauk

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump attracted a lot of support by promising to restore jobs to the American manufacturing sector. One sector that has been hit hard by purportedly unfair foreign...

Counter-terrorism measures permanently reduce international trade: new study

By Cong S. Pham Et Al

Enhanced counter-terrorism measures help to protect lives, but unfortunately also reduce trade, our study shows. The costs of increased security measures are also not shared equally. While some costs are passed onto...

Gender makes a world of difference for safety on public transport

By Hannah Korsmeyer Et Al

Urban environments are not gender-neutral. Architects and urban designers are increasingly seeking to understand how gender-sensitive design can combat the spatial inequities faced by those who identify as women and girls...

Low-energy homes don't just save money, they improve lives

By Trivess Moore Et Al

Household energy use is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions. International policy is firmly moving towards technology-rich, low- and near-zero-energy homes. That is, buildings designed to reduce the need...

How companies should fend of attacks from activist investors

By Stefan Petry

Activist investors are often presented as the bad guys of financial markets. They burst onto the scene, shout loudly their plans and can offer brutal verdicts on the performance of company bosses. Naturally, CEOs would...

Forget workers going out on strike – in future it should be consumers

By Aude Cefaliello

I belong to a generation that has been told there is no other choice other than to be flexible in the labour market. It means being flexible about where you go to work, when you go to work, and about what you work you are...

Why upward social mobility means some people move downwards

By Geoff Payne

A damning report into social mobility has concluded that successive UK governments have failed to tackle the issue for the past 20 years. But the analysis by the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) also fails on this front....

Social media genie won't go back in the bottle, so we must teach youngsters to use it wisely

By Vladlena Benson

Teenagers in Britain are fortunate to have access to computers, laptops and smartphones from an early age. A child in the UK receives a smartphone at around the age of 12 among the earliest in Europe. The natural...

Why has healthcare become such a target for cyber-attackers?

By Myrsini Athinaiou

More than 16m patient records were stolen from healthcare organisations in the US and related parties in 2016. That year, healthcare was the fifth most targeted industry when it came to cyber-attacks. And earlier this...

New Home Office drug strategy, same old rhetoric

By Ian Hamilton Et Al

The Home Office has just published a new drug strategy. The last one was published by Theresa May (then home secretary) seven years ago. The world has changed a lot in that time not least for May and so have drugs and...

Fact Check: would banning zero-hours contracts harm more people than it would help?

By Jason Heyes

So while Matthews report is clear that many workers value the flexibility that zero-hours contracts offer them, and that banning such contracts altogether would harm more people than it would help, it is important that we...

Death toll mounts in Rio de Janeiro as police lose control of the city -- and of themselves

By Silvia Ramos

On June 30, a baby was shot in his mothers belly in Rio de Janeiro. After the rifle fire hit 29-year-old Claudinéia in the hip in the Favela do Lixão neighbourhood, her son Arthur was delivered via emergency...

The Islamic State is on its knees, but its legacy will long haunt the Middle East

By Mohammed Nuruzzaman

After three years of violence, Islamic State has encountered a major defeat that could mean that its end is near. On July 10 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, after a successful nine-month military offensive to...

The future of artificial intelligence: two experts disagree

By Peter Stratton Et Al

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to revolutionise our lives, drive our cars, diagnose our health problems, and lead us into a new future where thinking machines do things that were yet to imagine. Or does it? Not...

We regulate doctors to protect the public from harm - why not journalists?

By David Maslove

In the post-truth haze that has enveloped public discourse, a free press is more crucial than ever in educating the public and holding leaders to account. Reliable, accurate news is an essential public good, while false or...

Why licensing journalists won't end the scourge of 'fake news'

By Christopher Waddell

A good place to start when considering a proposed solution is to ask what problem that solution is aiming to fix. Thats a good way to approach suggestions that journalists should be licensed as a means to address...

As academic hospitals lower mortality rates, should insurers reconsider excluding them?

By Marschall Runge

A comprehensive new study has found that major teaching hospitals in the United States outperformed non-teaching hospitals in the most important of all health care outcomes: reducing mortality rates. Using a traditional...

Digital database captures voices from inside America's prisons

By Doran Larson

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced a return to a pre-Obama policy of seeking maximum penalties for all drug crimes, including low-level, nonviolent offenses. Criticism from politicians, criminologists,...

Taxing empty homes: a step towards affordable housing, but much more can be done

By Hal Pawson

Vacant housing rates are rising in our major cities. Across Australia on census night, 11.2% of housing was recorded as unoccupied a total of 1,089,165 dwellings. With housing affordability stress also intensifying, the...

The blockchain could have better security than the banks

By Luke van der Laan

There are ways to improve the online ledger blockchain by taking some security notes from banks. If people could use both two-step verification and spending limits on the blockchain, this would reduce any economic loss...

Why do human beings speak so many languages?

By Michael Gavin

The thatched roof held back the suns rays, but it could not keep the tropical heat at bay. As everyone at the research workshop headed outside for a break, small groups splintered off to gather in the shade of coconut...