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Editor's note
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Babies prefer the babbling of other babies to the sound of their own parents, a new study reveals. This preference for repetitive noises could help to explain how infants develop language, says Catherine Laing. And when it comes to communicating with children, many parents find it hard to talk to them about death. Just don’t shy away from the topic, advise Georgia Panagiotaki, Carys Seeley and Gavin Nobes. It’s important that you are honest and unambiguous.
It feels like rotten luck when you get a parking ticket. But whether or not you actually get busted for a violation might be more than a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Politics plays a part too. Emanuele Bracco found Italian mayors are a lot more lenient with their fines when facing re-election.
Childish Gambino’s new music video for his song This is America was viewed almost 50m times in five days. Daniel Cookney believes it is a multi-layered political statement which utilises choreography to satirise the historical role of the black man’s supposedly “joyous” song and dance routine.
Jill Gibbon sneaks into arms fairs in Europe and the Middle East by dressing up as a security consultant. She does so to caricature the glamour and etiquette that normalise international weapons sales – and from classical quartets to branded condoms, what she finds there may shock you.
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Clint Witchalls
Health + Medicine Editor
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Top stories
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Elena Stepanova/Shutterstock.com
Catherine Laing, Cardiff University
Babies would rather listen to each other than to their parents' babytalk, according to new research.
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Shutterstock
Emanuele Bracco, Lancaster University
If you're going to drive badly in Italy, do it towards the end of the local mayor's term in office.
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This is America.
Childish Gambino/YouTube
Daniel Cookney, University of Salford; Kirsty Fairclough, University of Salford
Donald Glover's music video is a multi-layered political statement which aims to kick its audience out of its complacency.
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© Jill Gibbon
Jill Gibbon, Leeds Beckett University
There's a disturbing disconnect between the polite etiquette of arms fairs and the hell that their products create.
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Education
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Monika Schmid, University of Essex
Coverage of a new study suggests it's impossible to become fluent in a foreign language after age ten. But that's deeply misleading – and not what the study found.
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Michael Richards, Edge Hill University; John Marsden, Edge Hill University; Sean Creaney, Edge Hill University
Why are student suicides rising?
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Colin Moran, University of Stirling; Naomi Brooks, University of Stirling; Ross Chesham, University of Stirling
The Daily Mile started in a primary school in central Scotland six years ago. Now it has spread to 3,600 schools in 35 countries.
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Politics + Society
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Scott Edwards, University of Birmingham
After 61 years, Malaysia has finally seen the opposition take control. What now?
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Michael J. Armstrong, Brock University
Flashy interceptor systems attract media and government attention. But bomb shelters and warning systems are at least as important in the midst of missile strikes.
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Business + Economy
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Kathy Conklin, University of Nottingham; Richard Hyde, University of Nottingham
Consumer law requires legal agreements to be transparent – so how does this apply to complicated terms and conditions we're expected to read?
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Dan Finn, University of Portsmouth
A long read on the decimation of British jobcentres – and why it puts the rollout of Universal Credit at risk.
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Health + Medicine
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Ana Valdes, University of Nottingham
A low diversity of gut bacteria may help explain heart attacks in young people, women and certain ethnic groups.
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Science + Technology
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Stefan Theil, University of Oxford
Spoiler: NetzDG does not cover all hate speech and probably won't have a 'chilling effect' on users.
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Georgia Panagiotaki, University of East Anglia; Carys Seeley, University of East Anglia; Gavin Nobes, University of East Anglia
When it comes to death, children's imagination can sometimes be scarier than reality.
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Emily O'Connor, Lund University
Migrating to Europe changed the immune systems of birds who no longer needed to worry about African diseases.
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Featured events
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Fabric District, London Road, Liverpool, Liverpool, L3 8HL, United Kingdom — Liverpool John Moores University
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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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Ellen Wilkinson Building, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom — University of Manchester
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Old Quad, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom — University of Manchester
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