Christoph Bluth, University of Bradford Since the invasion of Ukraine in February, the threat that weapons of mass destruction would be used has been a constant concern. Discussion of this threat has tended to focus on the possibility that Russia might resort to using its nuclear arsenal – something hinted at several times by the Russian president Vladimir Putin and …

Shutterstock/Jorm S Ruth Itzhaki, University of Oxford This article is part of the Insights Uncharted Brain series. There are many competing theories about what causes Alzheimer’s disease. Here, Ruth Itzhaki reflects on a career dedicated to one of the more controversial lines of research. Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance …

Butter boards are sort of like a charcuterie board featuring artisanal butters. zarzamora/ Shutterstock Duane Mellor, Aston University In an unexpected twist, butter seems to be back on the menu. After years of being a maligned ingredient that many people shied away from, butter has now become the latest food trend on social media, thanks to the recent popularity of …

Haim Abraham, UCL One of the most basic and intuitive features that are expected of any legal system is to treat similar cases in a similar way. Sadly, when it comes to the law of negligence, Israel is not consistent in its treatment of Palestinians and other (often Jewish) citizens. In the recent case of Plonim v The Palestinian Authority …

Shrödinger’s cat is world famous, but what does it really mean? Robert Couse-Baker/Flickr, CC BY-SA Alessandro Fedrizzi, Heriot-Watt University and Mehul Malik, Heriot-Watt University Quantum mechanics, the theory which rules the microworld of atoms and particles, certainly has the X factor. Unlike many other areas of physics, it is bizarre and counter-intuitive, which makes it dazzling and intriguing. When the …

Vladmir Putin is very popular in Serbia. Sasa Dzambic Photography Andi Hoxhaj, UCL Putin is the world leader that Serbs admire the most and 95% of Serbs see Russia as a true ally, compared to only 11% who see the EU that way, despite the EU being Serbia’s major financial supporter, according to a recent poll. And 68% of Serbs …

StratfordProductions/Shutterstock Lewis Gough, Birmingham City University A significant proportion of people who contract COVID are left with ongoing symptoms, commonly termed “long COVID”. The nature of these symptoms and the duration of the illness differ between people. While some people are still suffering more than two years after their initial infection, others have recovered, or at least improved. As you’re …

Goodluz/Shutterstock Eric Laurentius Peterson, University of Leeds Heatwaves in numerous countries during 2022 sent all-time temperature records tumbling. On the day before the UK endured a shaded air temperature of 40°C for the first time ever, the Met Office issued its first ever red alert for extreme heat, which meant that people needed to take extra care to keep cool …

Andrii Vodolazhskyi/Shutterstock Joshua Jowitt, Newcastle University The story could have been straight out of science fiction – scientists have grown human brain cells in a lab, and taught them to play the video game Pong, similar to squash or tennis. But this didn’t happen on the big screen. It happened in a lab in Melbourne, Australia, and it raises the …

Magic mine/Shutterstock Agnieszka Lemanska, University of Surrey Every year, more than 10,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, for most of those people, the disease is diagnosed too late to be cured. Less than 10% of people live five years following a diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer is a silent disease. For many people, it has no symptoms …