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Stock market crashes linked to higher rates of suicide – new research

17 September 2018

Writing in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, New York Times columnist Will Rodgers commented that the level of panic was such that it induced a spate of suicide among traders. Although stories of increased rates of suicide in the aftermath of a financial meltdown are deeply ingrained in the folklore of finance, […]

No-deal Brexit: experts on what the UK government’s advice means

24 August 2018

The UK government is releasing a series of “technical notices” outlining what might happen if the country leaves the European Union without striking a deal for its future relationship with the bloc. While Dominic Raab,Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, stressed that this scenario was far from the preferred option, he added that […]

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Curious Kids: how does gravity pull things down to Earth?

20 August 2018

This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children of all ages. The Conversation is asking young people to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome: find details on how to enter at the bottom. How does gravity pull things down to Earth? – Gabriel, age four, […]

Trump and Putin: why interpreters should never be called to testify

25 July 2018

Interpreters play a crucial role in high-level multilingual meetings. Donald Trump’s recent summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin took a rather unexpected turn for the US president, resulting in much controversy over what was said during it. And now his interpreter has been caught up as well. Trump’s meeting with Putin has created much turmoil […]

World Cup: sexism in British punditry is clear for all to see

28 June 2018

For the first time in UK football punditry, both the BBC and ITV have hired women to offer analysis and commentate at the men’s World Cup. It is also the World Cup that has given a clear glimpse into the reality of everyday sexism. Already male pundits have been accused of patronising, condescending and sexist […]

Comet or asteroid? Mysterious ‘Oumuamua shows why we may need a new classification system

28 June 2018

Ever since space scientists first spotted the odd, cigar-shaped object known as 1I/‘Oumuamua in the sky, they have been debating what it is exactly. Suggestions have included an asteroid, a comet and even alien spaceship. Now a study, published in Nature, suggests it may actually be a comet – but an unusual one. The fascinating […]

Is there a new volcano on Hawaii?

27 June 2018

Kilauea, the most active volcano on Hawaii, has been in continual eruption since 1983. It entered a new phase in early May when fractures along a rift on the eastern side of the volcano opened during a series of earthquakes – some of which became volcanic fissures from which lava was erupted. These fissures allowed […]

Icy dunes on Pluto: spacecraft reveals new details about planet’s surface

1 June 2018

When Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930, he could not have known that he was opening a whole field of science that is only now coming into its own: the study of planetary landscapes, or comparative planetary morphology. Since the announcement of Pluto’s discovery, the body has been a subject of much speculation: even from […]

Abandoned by the British, Afghan interpreters explain how they wait for years seeking safety

30 May 2018

When the British began to withdraw their forces from Afghanistan in 2012, the Afghan civilians they employed as interpreters, cooks and security guards, became even more exposed to threats, losing the limited protection that military bases granted them. In recognition of their work and its risks, the UK government put two schemes in place. The […]

Why cancer cells go to sleep

27 April 2018

Cancer has always been thought of as something that grows rapidly and uncontrollably, but this view may be wrong. New evidence suggests that cancer alternatively uses the “accelerator” and the “brake” in order to survive. If you plot the growth of prostate cancer tumour progression over years, you get a graph that looks something like […]

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