When Stephen Hawking’s PhD thesis was recently released online, the rush to download it crashed Cambridge University’s website. But even if you managed to access it, you might’ve had trouble understanding the complex theoretical physics. James Geach has neatly summarised it instead, explaining how Hawking helped settle scientific debate about the origins of the universe by proving how the Big Bang was physically possible.

Fats Domino, who died this week, is revered as one of the most popular African-American recording artists of the 1950s and a leading architect of rock'n'roll. But, as Brian Ward recounts, the New Orleans-born musician was also highly influential in breaking down the scourge of segregation in the US.

As the UK’s difficult debate over arms sales to Saudi Arabia gathers steam, two anti-arms trade activists accused of criminal damage at a BAE Systems plant were acquitted yesterday. Fiona Robertson-Snape asks why it’s so hard for the British government to iron out the ethics of selling weapons abroad, and looks back at the unsavoury story of its sales to Suharto’s brutal regime in Indonesia.

And​ the political crisis in Catalonia ​​​​​​continues amid confusion over whether its president will call new elections or declare full independence from Spain. You can read The Conversation’s ongoing analysis of the situation here.

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