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Editor's note
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Children are likely to live long enough to see the worst effects of climate change. Yet as they cannot vote, they are unable to do anything about it through the democratic channels that adults take for granted. With no other ability to influence things, it’s no wonder pupils at some schools will be skipping classes today to go on their first “climate strike”, says environmental philosopher Rupert Read. Meanwhile, Benjamin Bowman answers the
first question of Just So You Know, our Q&A service for teenagers, which wonders why it is that teenagers don’t have a greater say in
their future.
Since the 1950s, the received wisdom has been that one hormone dictates whether human foetuses become boys: testosterone. Now, says Paul Fowler, his research team have proven otherwise. Another vital hormone is involved, and it originates not from the testes but a different part of the anatomy. The implications for treating sexual development disorders like deformed penises could be groundbreaking.
There is a mountain of drug research and nearly all of it focuses on harms, despite the fact that millions of people use drugs without coming to harm. In fact, drugs give many people lots of pleasure. Ian Hamilton and Alex Aldridge argue that it’s time we studied the pleasure that drugs induce as it might lead to better policies.
After a new Conservative youth group called Turning Point UK launched earlier this month, it was criticised on social media for being “far right”. But Chris Allen and Ilda Cuko suggest the group doesn’t readily fit traditional understandings of who and what the far right is.
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Will de Freitas
Environment + Energy Editor
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Top story
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Valentin Flauraud / EPA
Rupert Read, University of East Anglia
Climate change will hit young people hardest, yet they cannot access the democratic processes that adults take for granted.
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Little boy blue.
noBorders - Brayden Howie
Paul Fowler, University of Aberdeen
What we thought we knew about male development since the 1950s has now been turned on it head.
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Aleksandra Belinskaya/Shutterstock
Ian Hamilton, University of York; Alex Aldridge, Royal Holloway
Understanding the pleasure drugs give people would help to prevent the harms.
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A screenshot from promotional material by Turning Point UK.
Turning Point UK
Chris Allen, University of Leicester; Ilda Cuko, University of Leicester
Traditional ways of describing the 'far right' are becoming outdated.
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Politics + Society
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Benjamin Bowman, Manchester Metropolitan University
Young people don't get to vote on the issues of the day, but that doesn't mean they can't build power and make their voices heard.
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Sam Edwards, Manchester Metropolitan University
A complicated man who some would cast as a simple answer to complex times.
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Stephen Reicher, University of St Andrews; Clifford Stott, Keele University; John Drury, University of Sussex
When it comes to riots, UK politicians need to acknowledge the real root causes, and address key issues such as failures in community policing.
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Christopher Smith, Coventry University
Several pro-Brexit figures have made some spurious historical claims lately.
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Dave Porter, Manchester Metropolitan University
ITV was justified in reporting Olly Robbins' private conversation about Brexit as the public has a right to know the government's plans.
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Pia Riggirozzi, University of Southampton
Assertive politics is not enough.
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Sumantra Bose, London School of Economics and Political Science
The bonhomie between Narendra Modi and Binyamin Netanyahu is rooted in the admiration of generations of Hindu nationalists for Israel.
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Environment + Energy
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Raffaella Ocone, Heriot-Watt University
The Drax biomass plant in Yorkshire is the first in the world to pioneer carbon capture and some specialists see it as it has a bright future. But hold the rosy headlines.
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Claire Gwinnett, Staffordshire University
Nurdles are a raw feedstock used to make most of the plastic products we use everyday, but they're flooding the ocean as "mermaid tears".
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Zareen Pervez Bharucha, Anglia Ruskin University
Changing the way we farm is necessary – for us and the planet.
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Education
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David Rousell, Manchester Metropolitan University; Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, Southern Cross University
In these divided times, young people are uniting to claim a political platform and fight climate change.
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Francis Green, UCL
Only 9% of people in the UK are privately educated, and yet they occupy an especially high share in positions of public influence.
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Health + Medicine
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Craig Gwynne, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Nine months is a long time to have sore feet but these easy remedies can ease the pain.
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Arts + Culture
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Ellen Turner, Lund University
Panned as rubbish when it was published in 1919, The Sheik spawned a legendary movie and hundreds of desert romances, despite its questionable central theme.
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Featured events
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Event Space, Emily Wilding Davison Building, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom — Royal Holloway
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Picture Gallery, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom — Royal Holloway
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Room C/A/101, Chemistry Buildings, York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom — University of York
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