|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editor's note
|
Al Gore is a media star and Donald Trump is the president of the United States. Sometimes, it still feels as if a rupture in the space-time continuum has flipped us into an alternate reality in which things are strangely familiar but not quite right.*
But here we are. And the man who very nearly became the 43rd US president is back on our screens. Gore reinvented himself as an environmental champion with his first film, An Inconvenient Truth. The sequel is in cinemas this weekend. For The Conversation, the former vice president sat down with Mark Maslin of UCL to discuss what Trump, the power of big business and the rise of populist politics mean for the future of the planet. Check out the Q&A and video interview.
Gore has also been calling for Trump to stand down as president in the wake of the far-right attack in Charlottesville, Virginia last week. Academics on both sides of the Atlantic have been writing on the events that have rocked America, and plunged the White House into yet another crisis. One image in particular captured the horror of the moment – Jennifer Wenzel of Columbia University took a look.
By the week’s end, Europe was also, once again, reeling from a terrorist attack involving a vehicle. Our analysis of a deadly night in Catalonia continues here.
It is little surprise, then, that “peace education” has become a key plank of international attempts to prevent extremism. But is this valuable approach finding its way into UK classrooms?
Elsewhere this week, we’ve been looking at bees and pesticides, wondering how eggs containing an insecticide
found their way into sandwiches and llamas conquered the world, and hearing what lessons should be learned from the demise of the proposed Garden Bridge in London.
*Note/apology to our space physicist readers: the reference to “a rupture in the space-time continuum flipping us into an alternate reality” should not be taken literally.
|
|
Top story
|
La Rambla runs right through the centre of Barcelona.
EPA/Armando Babani
Mark McKinty, Queen's University Belfast
The boulevard runs through the heart of the city, drives its tourist economy and acts as a symbol of life in Catalonia.
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Karl McLaughlin, Manchester Metropolitan University
A toxic combination of history and social tension makes Spain fertile ground for extremist recruitment.
-
Gajendra Singh, University of Exeter
After well over half a century of Independence, the ghosts of colonialism still haunt India's national psyche.
-
Andy Harvey, Swansea University
In 25 years of the Premier League, things have changed, but it's an ongoing battle.
-
Magdalena Zawisza, Anglia Ruskin University
Even short-term exposure to negative stereotypes has detrimental effects on cognitive functioning.
-
Karen West, Aston University
The generational 'war' is a con, designed to hide a darker truth.
|
|
Environment + Energy
|
-
Mark Maslin, UCL
Climate scientist Mark Maslin interviewed the former US vice-president about his new film, An Inconvenient Sequel.
-
Ian Mell, University of Manchester
Such projects should be clear from the outset about who owns them, who will build them, and who they are for.
-
Helen Cowie, University of York
They survived the pressures of globalisation and now thrive internationally.
-
Mark Brown, Royal Holloway
Exposure to neonicotinoids could lead to fewer bumblebee colonies, less pollination, and ultimately to population extinctions.
-
Kathryn Fingland, Nottingham Trent University
Formby is one of the only remaining urban areas in England where red squirrels can be found at all.
|
|
Arts + Culture
|
-
Jennifer Wenzel, Columbia University
Ryan Kelly's iconic photograph from Charlottesville evokes a 'Unite the Right' moment from 1937 – and the anti-war masterpiece by Picasso that emerged from it.
-
Adrian York, University of Westminster
Elvis's impressive vocal range and his technical ability made his voice an instrument that even opera singers have lined up to pay tribute to.
|
|
Business + Economy
|
-
Lisa Jack, University of Portsmouth
Even a fraction of a penny per egg over hundreds of thousands of eggs can mean being able to survive as a business, so the temptation to cut corners is huge.
-
Heejung Chung, University of Kent
Flexible working reduces the likelihood that women cut their hours or leave the labour market after childbirth.
-
Cary Cooper, University of Manchester
Do you reply to emails first thing in the morning and last thing at night? Your company should be insisting that you don't.
|
|
Health + Medicine
|
-
Alannah Tomkins, Keele University
A new BBC drama manages to capture the flawed, but sometimes brilliant, men of Victorian medicine.
-
Duane Mellor, Coventry University; Daniel Amund, Coventry University; Isabella Nyambayo, Coventry University
Fruit cake may last a century, but it's got nothing on honey.
|
|
Science + Technology
|
-
Chris Barratt, University of Dundee
A study in mice shows it is possible to delete extra chromosomes in a range of conditions that are associated with infertility, including Down's syndrome.
|
|
Education
|
-
Shelley McKeown Jones, University of Bristol; Janet Orchard, University of Bristol; Julia Paulson, University of Bristol
We need to learn the skills of living together.
-
Jake Anders, UCL; Catherine Dilnot, Oxford Brookes University
New research shows what subjects you study at school make a big difference to the type of university you end up attending.
|
|
|
Featured events
|
|
Jubilee Library City Centre, Brighton , Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom — The Conversation
|
|
Room 3.08 Scott Russell Building, Research and Enterprise Services, , Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH144AS, United Kingdom — Heriot-Watt University
|
|
New Town Theatre, Freemasons' Hall, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, City of, EH2 3DH, United Kingdom — Bangor University
|
|
University of Stirling, Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, United Kingdom — University of Stirling
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|