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Editor's note
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Across the world, the ‘elbow bump’ is growing in popularity as an alternative to the handshake. In India, people are clamouring for the traditional namaste greeting to supplant the Western gesture. And on Tuesday, the Dutch prime minister told his nation to refrain from shaking hands – slipping up himself moments later when he shook hands with the official standing next to him.
This last example is particularly revealing. For many of us, the handshake is something automatic, an art instilled in us from a young age – and so not so easy to refrain from. But the importance of doing so, at least for a short time, is becoming clearer by the day. Erika Hughes has always been interested in the handshake as a social performance. She considers whether coronavirus might cause us to re-consider our automatic gestures, and
change our habits of touch in the longer term.
A new figure is doing the rounds in climate denial circles: the so-called ‘anti-Greta Thunberg’, Naomi Seibt. She claims that the term “global warming” was purposefully rebranded as “climate change” as a sophisticated cover up. That’s simply not the case.
And the latest in our Curious Kids series answers the question: do grownups still grow?
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Josephine Lethbridge
Interdisciplinary Editor
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Top stories
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Chris Liverani/Unsplash
Erika Hughes, University of Portsmouth
The coronavirus outbreak is causing people to rethink the handshake and seek other gestures that perform similar functions without touch.
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Naomi Seibt, known as the ‘anti-Greta’, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2020.
Erik S Lesser / EPA
Giulio Corsi, University of Cambridge
I analysed 30 years of data to disprove a theory spread by Donald Trump, Naomi Seibt and others.
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milatas/Shutterstock
Barry Bogin, Loughborough University
Grownups don't get taller, but they can grow in other ways.
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Health + Medicine
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Michael Wade, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
While COVID-19 is a real concern for businesses and governments, a more serious issue right now is the wider impact of heavily recycled information on society.
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Edward Parker, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Beate Kampmann, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The risks to individuals vary hugely with age.
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Julii Brainard, University of East Anglia; Paul Hunter, University of East Anglia
Everything you need to know to ace self-isolation.
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Maureen Ferran, Rochester Institute of Technology
A molecular biologist explains who should get tested, how the tests work and what the US government is doing to make tests available during a rapidly changing crisis.
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Aleks Berditchevskaia, Nesta; Kathy Peach, Nesta
We're better together.
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Eleonora Fichera, University of Bath
The government's "whatever it takes" promise to NHS is all very well, but UK healthcare is a long way from being ready to deal with a major outbreak.
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Politics + Society
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Christoph Meyer, King's College London
At times of high tension, governments can be cornered into making mistakes by responding to the wrong pressures.
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Patricia Justino, United Nations University
Economic inequality is growing across the world, but few are talking about the ways to tackle it.
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Kari Brossard Stoos, Ithaca College; Heather Dichter, De Montfort University
Could the Olympic Games be postponed for the first time in its history?
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Science + Technology
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Tom Stafford, University of Sheffield
The captain of a ship, or a soul, doesn't sail while ignoring the wind – sometimes they go with it, sometimes against it, but they always account for it.
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Environment + Energy
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James Robinson, Lancaster University; Nick Graham, Lancaster University
Without understanding which fish species and habitats local fishers rely on, export bans can do more harm than good.
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Featured events
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East Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB11PT, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Anglia Ruskin University
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LLandaff Campus, Western Avenue , Cardiff, CF5 2YB , Cardiff [Caerdydd GB-CRD], CF11 9BP, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Cardiff Metropolitan University
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East Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB11PT, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Anglia Ruskin University
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East Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB11PT, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Anglia Ruskin University
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