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Almost all legal COVID-19 restrictions in England are set to be lifted today, and most scaled back in Wales and Scotland, despite rapidly rising infections and fears of new variants.
If you’re not convinced that this really is “freedom day”, as some politicians and journalists have dubbed it, you might care to consider whether the term is just propaganda. An expert on the subject explains how it wouldn’t be the first occasion when a wartime messaging playbook has been used to deliver communications about the pandemic.
The government has repeatedly told the public to use “common sense” from Monday, but many of us still have questions about how to behave and what to expect. Whether it’s should you ditch your mask, what will vaccine passports mean for nights out, or can we really be expected to make sense of all the data, a few of our articles this week can hopefully help you.
When you return from your first night out clubbing, maybe think about changing your sheets – a microbiologist reveals all the creepy crawlies that lurk on our duvets and pillows. And if you feel hungover the next morning, remember you’re not the first to overdo it – humanity has an incredibly long history of experimenting with mood-altering substances.
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Avery Anapol
Commissioning Editor
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Eddie Mulholland/Daily Telegraph/EPA-EFE
Colin Alexander, Nottingham Trent University
The "Freedom Day" rhetoric around the end of COVID-19 restrictions can be best understood through the lens of propaganda.
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Germs love your bed as much as you do.
L Julia/ Shutterstock
Manal Mohammed, University of Westminster
You'll probably want to wash your sheets after reading this.
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Nicholas Longrich
Nicholas R. Longrich, University of Bath
Today, Homo sapiens regularly use psychoactive chemicals to modify the mind – but how did it all begin?
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Politics + Society
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Emily Morris, UCL
Hardship is driving Cubans out on to the streets. A lot of the economic woe is due to US foreign policy.
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Tao Zhang, Nottingham Trent University
A new wave of political dissenters is emerging in China – and being repressed.
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Tony Kushner, University of Southampton
The Church of England's apology for medieval antisemitism is welcome. But there is something missing.
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Cornel Sandvoss, University of Huddersfield
Studying the team over the past 25 years has provided clues as to why it's plagued with issues of racism and hooliganism
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Health + Medicine
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Stephen John, University of Cambridge
A philosopher of public health ponders whether taking your mask off on July 19 is like punching someone in the face or like riding a bike.
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Manuel León Urrutia, University of Southampton
After months of government decision-making based on data, is the public really ready to go it alone?
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Panagiotis Balatsoukas, Loughborough University; Gyuchan Thomas Jun, Loughborough University; Isabel Sassoon, Brunel University London
A brief guide for customers and businesses.
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Environment + Energy
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Jeff Da Costa, University of Reading
Catastrophic floods in north-western Europe have shown how badly early warning systems can fail.
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Sarah Elizabeth Dalrymple, Liverpool John Moores University
Climate change is even worse than we expected - so is now the time for conservationists to take extreme measures to stem the extinction crisis?
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Science + Technology
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Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University; Gareth Dorrian, University of Birmingham
No new records have been broken and no new technology has been tested.
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Featured events
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Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Cardiff [Caerdydd GB-CRD], CF10 3BA, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Cardiff University
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Whiteknights House, PO Box 217, Reading, Reading, RG6 6AH, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Reading
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University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Essex
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