Economics Nobel: how this year’s winners helped to smooth the cycle of economic peaks and troughs
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences to the American economists Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford. The prize was awarded in recognition of their development of macroeconomic models that helped to reduce the length and depth of economic downturns. According to the Academy, the economists’ work […]
Why do some children become seriously ill with COVID? The answer may lie in their genes
Drazen Zigic/ Shutterstock Most children who are infected with SARS-COV2, the virus that causes COVID, experience only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. But a small proportion develop severe illness which can sometimes even require hospital care. The reason why only some children develop severe illness hasn’t been clear until now. But our latest […]
Empathy can help make maternity care safer – here’s how
oatawa/Shutterstock.com Poppy Russell lived for just 12 hours. She died in April 2021 at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford after suffering a brain injury during birth. An inquest concluded that her death was preventable. Her parents, Neil and Katie Russell, then faced another ordeal: the hospital trust blamed Katie, alleging she had refused foetal […]
An overlooked sci-fi movie shows how disruption by AI could be positive for society
The AI doomsday news cycle plays on anxieties about the future. The media has tended to prioritise sensational takes on the risk at the expense of more thoughtful opinions by, for example, experts in the ethics of AI. Alarmist fantasies of superintelligence – where artificial intelligence surpasses that of the most gifted human minds – […]
Escape rooms give healthcare students a safe place to get things wrong
Working through problems together can help healthcare students practise the reasoning and decision-making they will later need with real patients. PeopleImages/Shutterstock The buzzer goes off. Three occupational therapy students are convinced they have worked out what should happen to their patient next. They are wrong. Nobody is harmed, and no real patient is waiting. The […]
Donald Trump aligns with Vladimir Putin yet again, leaving Ukraine – and US relations with Europe – under pressure
The deal struck by Donald Trump with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on October 9 to allow Russia to sell millions of tonnes of diesel is a major departure from US policy and runs counter to Ukrainian and European interests. It also directly contradicts a law signed by the US president in September to authorise […]
China and the EU could turn Morocco into a surprise global hub for electric vehicles
An ‘automotive city’ near Tangier. laabiraid/Shutterstock China now makes more than seven in ten of the world’s electric cars. In 2024 it produced over 12 million, 1.25 million of which were exported, mainly to Europe. The EU is worried about this – alarmed by cheap, state-subsidised Chinese vehicles flooding its market and threatening the 13 […]
Unpicking the pensions triple lock: where it came from, and what might happen next
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has made the politically risky decision to adjust the pensions triple lock from April 2030. Speaking at this year’s Labour Party Conference, he said: “Some may not realise it but older people with nothing more than the state pension, or only a little more, can find themselves paying care charges today […]
What Andy Burnham can learn from Sweden about defending against Russian disinformation
Magnus Hjort, director of Sweden’s psychological defence agency, says social media is giving authoritarian ‘better opportunities’ to influence foreign elections. Michael715 / Shutterstock In his speech at the UN General Assembly in September, Andy Burnham announced that his security chiefs would begin work on a new National Centre for Information Defence. The UK prime minister […]
How bionic eyes are becoming a reality
If you’ve delved into the worlds of Star Trek, The Terminator or William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, you’ll know that enhanced, electronic vision is a staple of science fiction. Now, what was once futuristic fiction is becoming a reality. Researchers have developed bionic eyes that can restore some lost vision. These devices’ capabilities are currently […]