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Editor's note
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You may not think very much about chairs, despite the fact that you’re probably sitting on one right now. There could be more than 60 billion of them on the planet. And it’s likely that you sit on one for 9.5 hours every day. Chairs could be shaving years off your life – yet you still probably pay them very little attention. The weird thing about all this is that until the 19th century, chairs were few and far between. Vybarr Cregan-Reid ruminates on the global domination of this humble object.
The British home secretary apologised last week after it emerged his department had made immigration applicants undergo DNA tests to prove their identity. The uses of DNA sequencing technology are expanding, but Matthew Stallard argues that many databases of genetic material are inadvertently built around social biases, and are exacerbating inequality.
It’s five years since the first burger made from meat grown in a lab was publicly eaten, and the food industry has been busy. Neil Stephens explains how an explosion of activity in Silicon Valley and elsewhere means so-called cell-based meat could be on our plates very soon.
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Josephine Lethbridge
Interdisciplinary Editor
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Top stories
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Gn fotografie/Shutterstock.com
Vybarr Cregan-Reid, University of Kent
Our love affair with the chair has horrible consequences.
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Gio.tto/Shutterstock
Matthew Stallard, University of Manchester
The chances of your genetic data being recorded by the state depend on who you are.
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Nevodka/Shutterstock
Neil Stephens, Brunel University London
As the number of companies growing meat in vats explodes, the sector is facing challenges that show it is coming of age.
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Politics + Society
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Sharon Wright, University of Glasgow; Lisa Scullion, University of Salford; Peter Dwyer, University of York
The system of welfare conditionality that underpins Universal Credit is ineffective at moving people off social security and into work.
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Robin Pettitt, Kingston University
Constructive ambiguity on the biggest issue of the day works in opposition, but Labour wants to be in government before long.
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Helder Ferreira do Vale, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing congressman and former army captain, is Brazil's next president, with 56 percent of votes. Critics see a threat to democracy in his scathing attacks on Brazilian society.
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Ayona Datta, King's College London; Nabeela Ahmed, King's College London; Rakhi Tripathi, FORE School of Management
In a country where 26% of the population has access to mobile internet, India's working class women are finding other ways to fight the patriarchy.
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James McMurray, University of Sussex
Uyghur re-education camps are counter-productive and could do exactly the opposite of what the Chinese state intends.
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Brian Budd, University of Guelph
Faith Goldy's third-place finish in the Toronto mayoralty race should not be dismissed. We must be watchful of the potential lessons that other far-right politicians may draw from her campaign.
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Science + Technology
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Daniel Brown, Nottingham Trent University
From sun dials to atomic clocks, we still don't have a perfect time measuring device.
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Iwan Morus, Aberystwyth University
Frankenstein might look like fantasy to modern eyes, but to its author and original readers there was nothing fantastic about it.
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Cities
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Rowland Atkinson, University of Sheffield
For a nation in the grips of a housing crisis, you'd expect high-rise developments to be good news – unfortunately not.
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Tamar Carroll, Rochester Institute of Technology; Joshua Meltzer, Rochester Institute of Technology
For decades, the alternative weekly's photographers served as the eyes of the streets, working with activists to document and publicize the anguish and rage of everyday New Yorkers.
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Featured events
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Lower ground floor, 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 D/L/002, Derwent College, York, York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom — University of York
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G11, Henley Business School, Whiteknights campus, University of Reading, Reading, Reading, RG6 6AH, United Kingdom — University of Reading
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