From industrial powerhouse to uncertain future: lessons from Britain’s chemical industry
In 1989 a young Janet Godsell, one of the authors of this article, spent a week on night shifts in the powerhouse at ICI’s Huddersfield works in west Yorkshire. She was starting her career at the biggest chemicals company in the UK, but it would be broken up and sold off a few years later […]
Four foods with ancient roots that we still eat on Bonfire Night
Fireworks by J. S. Holmes (1867). Hartlepool Museums and Heritage Service The gunpowder plot of 1605 was an attempt to assassinate King James I, blow up London’s Houses of Parliament and trigger a full-scale Catholic rebellion in England. To commemorate its spectacular failure, parliament passed the Act for a Public Thanksgiving to Almighty God Every […]
Jonathan Swift foresaw the pitfalls of AI in Gulliver’s Travels
Wikimedia We think of artificial intelligence based on large language models as a discovery of our own moment. But Jonathan Swift – yes, the writer of Gulliver’s Travels (1726) – foresaw it all in the 18th century. In our modern world we are repeatedly told by companies, governments, journalists and others that our lives can […]
Canada-EU alliance: as a blueprint for a ‘middle-power bloc’ it has a lot of hurdles to overcome
The dream of a Canada-EU “middle-power bloc” has hit its first serious obstacle. At the Montreal summit, Brussels failed to deliver on the promise of associate membership for Canada, despite the enthusiastic backing of European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. Instead, the EU offered the hollow consolation of “an ever-closer association”, raising an uncomfortable […]
From Wales to Finland, minority language speakers still face prejudice
Todd Bigelow/Shutterstock “How very rude to be speaking Welsh.” That was the complaint a stranger directed at Patsy, a Welsh learner featured in my latest book, after overhearing her family speaking Welsh in a Cardiff cafe. She could hardly believe it: “But you’re in Wales. What are you talking about?” Wales has come a long […]
Andy Burnham at Prime Minister’s Questions: what’s he doing differently?
© House of Commons, CC BY-NC-ND Prime Minister Andy Burnham promised from the start that he will do things differently. Whether on social care, electoral reform or ranking pub snacks with Chancellor John Healey in a video for Number 10’s social media channels, Burnham wants voters to believe he is committed to a new way […]
Vocational GCSEs won’t arrive until 2029 – but clean energy skills can be found in the curriculum now
Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock Over the next few months, most year nine pupils in England (aged 13–14) will choose their GCSE options. For those curious about the jobs behind the clean energy systems, heat pumps, electric cars and buses now appearing on their streets, the government’s new vocational GCSEs will arrive just too late. The Department for Education […]
Sunscreen myths explained: the truth about beef tallow, cancer and vitamin D
Sunscreen has become the latest target of health misinformation, with some social media influencers questioning its safety and promoting natural alternatives. But what does the science say? maxbelchenko/Shutterstock Some people are so worried about sunscreen that they’re swapping factor 50 for beef tallow. Yes, the fat traditionally used to make roast potatoes is now being […]
How North Korea became a world leader in state-sponsored hacking
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was the victim of a massive heist in late October. Approximately US$6.36 billion (£4.74 billion) of funds were stolen within the space of 20 minutes in an attack that has been described as the largest of its kind in history. The source of the attack has not yet been […]
Stone age hunters in northern Europe may have used poison arrows to hunt big prey
Autumn walks in Britain are glorious, as the foliage changes colour and cool crisp air begins to bite. However, some of these European trees hide a much darker secret. For example, the yew tree’s lovely red arils – the cup-shaped coverings around the seeds – carry toxins that may have been used to poison arrow […]