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Editor's note
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Climate activist Greta Thunberg is currently somewhere on the Atlantic, sailing a solar-powered racing yacht to the US, where she will attend a climate summit. Thunberg eschews flying and makes bold statements about the personal choices we all make in the face of our climate crisis. She shows that reconsidering the way we travel doesn’t have to be a depressing experience. We’ve been looking into other possible options for the future, too, from electric planes to orbit rings. Yes, some of the ideas seem outlandish. But we’re faced with an extreme environmental situation.
I was roundly mocked at the family dinner table this week as I, the only left-handed person present, tried and failed to cut a loaf of bread into slices with a right-handed bread knife (oh, you didn’t know bread knives were right handed? Well, they are). It’s tough, sometimes, living in a right-handed world and there are many misconceptions about left handedness. One particularly common idea is that left-handed people are right brained. But, as we’ve now heard, that’s not actually true.
It turns out that every country that fought in World War II won it. Even the Axis powers. Well, depending very much on who you ask. A new study has found that the general public in Germany, Russia, the UK and the US all think that their country was largely responsible for the outcome of the conflict. It is an excellent showcase for our extreme tendency to overestimate our own contributions to events. And that, in turn, has implications for
the argument you’re about to have about who does more housework.
This week, we’ve also been dropping f-bombs in the name of linguistic freedom, working out whether we need to go vegetarian and uncovering the surprisingly interesting history of boredom.
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Laura Hood
Politics Editor, Assistant Editor
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Artist Albert Robida imagined in 1882 how air travel might look in future.
Everett Historical/Shutterstock
John Grant, Sheffield Hallam University; Keith Baker, Glasgow Caledonian University
More than a century since humans learned to fly, we need to revolutionise how we stay up there.
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Wachiwit/Shutterstock
Emma Karlsson, Bangor University
10% of people are left-handed but we still haven't uncovered how this changes the way their brains work.
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Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference, 1945.
Wikipedia
Nick Chater, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
New research suggests people from Germany, Russia, the UK and US all think their own country was the most important in World War II.
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‘Ahhhh… That’s better!’
Shutterstock
Monika Schmid, University of Essex
As calls are made to ban swearing at work, in public and even at home, a linguist comes out fighting for harsh language.
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Arthimedes / shutterstock
Morten Fibieger Byskov, University of Warwick
Inequality in wealth, emissions and vulnerability means some are more responsible for climate action than others.
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Boredom has historically been an emotion both viewed as an enemy and embraced for its possibilities.
(Shutterstock)
Michelle Fu, University of Toronto
Scholars link the emergence of the term boredom to European industrial modernity, and the standardization of time, repetitive labour and development of leisure time associated with it.
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Carly-Emma Leachman, Nottingham Trent University
The UK is facing a population crisis with birth rates at an all-time low.
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Matthew Cole, University of Birmingham
Presenting himself as a man of the people is a major gamble for this prime minister.
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Adam Ni, Macquarie University
The Chinese government has a multi-pronged approach to quell the protests –building support among business elites, putting pressure on companies and ramping up its misinformation campaigns.
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Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol
You can't be gaslighted if you don't get confused and you won't get confused if you are not misled in the first place.
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Josephine Ross, University of Dundee
In dementia sufferers, if autobiographical self-knowledge is lost, feelings of agency – learned as an child – may be the last remaining facet of self, something most studies have ignored.
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Leah Ruppanner, University of Melbourne
The myth that women are superior multitaskers has just been busted. So, let's divide work in and out of the home so women aren't left running themselves ragged.
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Shahab Haghayegh, University of Texas at Austin
Millions of people struggle with falling asleep. A review of thousands of studies shows a possibly simple solution: a warm bath.
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Featured events
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Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 2JA, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Oxford
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Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham Innovation Park, , Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2TU, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Nottingham
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34 Broad Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 3BD, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Oxford
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Here East, Queen Elizabeth Park, London, London, City of, E15 2GW, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — UCL
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