Editor's note

Many is a morning when my fellow Conversation editors will recoil, retching, as I gulp down a glass of what they call “pond juice” at my desk. My daily consumption of a kale smoothie once even prompted a horrified onlooker to declare “everything you do is SO DIRE!” It’s fair, these green drinks are pretty ugly. But, guys, Beyoncé loves them!

I nearly choked on my spirulina, then, when I read a Conversation article about how I (and Beyoncé alike) appear to have fallen for a particularly slick marketing campaign. In 2011 the American Kale Association set out to convince modern foodies that they absolutely must gorge on a vegetable once described as “peasant cabbage” and only ever consumed in times of extreme need. Clearly, that campaign was highly successful. It’s a fascinating read.

We also have a report from Berlin Science Week, where experts have proposed updating our thinking on the nature versus nurture debate to reflect recent scientific findings. Rather than seeing the two as in opposition to each other, it’s increasingly accepted that they are intertwined.

You can catch up on all the latest from the UK election on our site, including analysis of the Labour Party’s wide ranging manifesto. We’ve looked in particular detail at the bold proposals for a “green industrial revolution”.

Also this week, we’ve been translating His Dark Materials, dodging scooters on the streets of Paris and asking whether an inability to sweat is really a thing.

Laura Hood

Politics Editor, Assistant Editor

Charles 🇵🇭/Unsplash

Celebrity greens kale and seaweed were long considered food of last resort

Lauren Alex O' Hagan, Cardiff University

Many trendy 'Instagrammable' foods have a long association with poverty.

Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock

Nature versus nurture: how modern science is rewriting it

Kevin Mitchell, Trinity College Dublin; Uta Frith, UCL

The evolution of reading clearly demonstrates that nature and nurture are intimately linked.

Is red the new green? EPA-EFE/NEIL HALL

Does Labour’s green industrial revolution tackle the climate crisis? Experts weigh in

Stephen Hall, University of Leeds; Marc Hudson, University of Manchester; Mike Jeffries, Northumbria University, Newcastle; Nicole Badstuber, University of Cambridge

Biodiversity, public transport and home insulation loom large in Labour's flagship programme for green governance.

The mysterious world of His Dark Materials. BBC/Bad Wolf/HBO

His Dark Materials: how to decode the story’s linguistic secrets

Simon Horobin, University of Oxford

Behind the magical tale is a deep layer of linguistic meaning.

Sasha Freemind/Unsplash

Stop medicalising loneliness – history reveals it’s society that needs mending

Fay Bound Alberti, University of York

More attention needs to be paid to loneliness’s complex history.

Shutterstock/FamVeld

Sleep-training and babies: why ‘crying it out’ is best avoided

Amy Brown, Swansea University; Lyndsey Hookway, Swansea University

Many baby books promote sleep-training methods that involve leaving babies to cry at night. But there are gentler ways to get a good night's sleep.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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