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Editor's note
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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.
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Laura Hood
Politics Editor, Assistant Editor
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Charles 🇵🇭/Unsplash
Lauren Alex O' Hagan, Cardiff University
Many trendy 'Instagrammable' foods have a long association with poverty.
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Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock
Kevin Mitchell, Trinity College Dublin; Uta Frith, UCL
The evolution of reading clearly demonstrates that nature and nurture are intimately linked.
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Is red the new green?
EPA-EFE/NEIL HALL
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.
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The mysterious world of His Dark Materials.
BBC/Bad Wolf/HBO
Simon Horobin, University of Oxford
Behind the magical tale is a deep layer of linguistic meaning.
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Sasha Freemind/Unsplash
Fay Bound Alberti, University of York
More attention needs to be paid to loneliness’s complex history.
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Shutterstock/FamVeld
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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Daniel Fitzpatrick, Aston University
Even if the Labour Party doesn't win in 2019, it is aiming for a longer term shift.
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Tiago Ratinho, IÉSEG School of Management
In major cities around the world, dockless scooters and bikes are everywhere, yet the companies themselves are often breathtakingly short-lived. Basic economic concepts give us clues why.
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Adam Taylor, Lancaster University
In his recent interview, Prince Andrew claimed that he had stopped sweating. Here's what the research says about how and why our bodies do it.
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David Geiringer, Queen Mary University of London
The ban on the pill led to much sorrow and frustration, but determined couples found imaginative ways to cope and work around it.
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Charles Fung, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Chun-wing Lee, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
How the protest movement in Hong Kong moved onto university campuses – by two researchers who have witnessed the unfolding events.
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Rachel Anne Barr, Université Laval
We fall sway to fake news because it grabs our attention through outlandish claims, suggests false memories and contains appeals to our emotions that align with our politics.
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Featured events
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Dragon Hall, 115 - 123 King Street, Norwich, Norfolk, NR1 1QE, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of East Anglia
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