With Raul Castro’s resignation as first secretary of the Communist Party, the Castro era is officially over in Cuba. Yamil Lage/AFP via Getty Images Joseph J. Gonzalez, Appalachian State University Cuba’s Castro dynasty has officially ended. On April 16, 2021, Raul Castro – younger brother of longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro – relinquished his position as first secretary of the …

Sarah Schiffling, Liverpool John Moores University and Liz Breen, University of Bradford When the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, announced on August 11 2020 that the country’s health regulator had become the first in the world to approve a COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use, the news was greeted with scepticism. No trials had been completed on the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. …

Male fertility: SciePro/Shutterstock Alex Ford, University of Portsmouth and Gary Hutchison, Edinburgh Napier University Within just a few generations, human sperm counts may decline to levels below those considered adequate for fertility. That’s the alarming claim made in epidemiologist Shanna Swan’s new book, “Countdown”, which assembles a raft of evidence to show that the sperm count of western men has …