Tag Archives: corepaedianews

Islamophobia in the media fed the support for the proposed Muslim travel ban. Here, a protestor holds an “End Islamophobia” sign at a rally opposing the ban at the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26, 2018. (Shutterstock) Stuart Chambers, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa Although anti-Muslim sentiments certainly existed long before 2001, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the response to …

Jim Barber/Shutterstock Jameel Inal, University of Hertfordshire When the efficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was announced in late 2020, there was some confusion. The overall efficacy of the vaccine at stopping people developing symptomatic COVID-19, two weeks after the second dose, was 70%. But this wasn’t the whole picture. This figure was based on averaging the results from two groups. …

Mustafa Menshawy, Lancaster University Shortly after four Arab countries – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt – imposed an embargo on Qatar in 2017, I flew into the country’s capital Doha. Hamad airport – usually buzzing with visitors from the Gulf countries (one of every four visitors to Qatar in 2015 came from Saudi Arabia) – was …

Shutterstock Mark Pearson, Griffith University The blame for the recent assault on the US Capitol and President Donald Trump’s broader dismantling of democratic institutions and norms can be laid at least partly on misinformation and conspiracy theories. Those who spread misinformation, like Trump himself, are exploiting people’s lack of media literacy — it’s easy to spread lies to people who …

Alexander Limbach/Shutterstock Sander van der Linden, University of Cambridge and Jon Roozenbeek, University of Cambridge Anti-vaccination groups are projected to dominate social media in the next decade if left unchallenged. To counter their viral misinformation at a time when COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out, our research team has produced a “psychological vaccine” that helps people detect and resist the …

The two giant radio galaxies found with the MeerKAT telescope. In the background is the sky as seen in optical light. Overlaid in red is the radio light from the enormous radio galaxies, as seen by MeerKAT. I. Heywood (Oxford/Rhodes/SARAO) Jacinta Delhaize, University of Cape Town Two giant radio galaxies have been discovered with South Africa’s powerful MeerKAT telescope, located …

Lunatictm/Shutterstock Robert Wilby, Loughborough University Another year, another climate record broken. Globally, 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year ever recorded. This was all the more remarkable given that cool conditions in the Pacific Ocean – known as La Niña – began to emerge in the second half of the year. The Earth’s mean surface temperature in 2020 was …

Could SARS-CoV-2 evolve to dodge the vaccine? Jose A. Bernat Bacete/Moment collection/Getty Images Andrew Read, Penn State and David Kennedy, Penn State The first drug against HIV brought dying patients back from the brink. But as excited doctors raced to get the miracle drug to new patients, the miracle melted away. In each and every patient, the drug only worked …

Vampire bats, a commonly deltavirus-infected host, feed on the blood of other mammals. Belizar/Shutterstock Laura Bergner, University of Glasgow and Daniel Streicker, University of Glasgow Pandemics past and present have been caused when pathogens – germs that cause disease – move between animals and humans, as SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) did when it made its way from bats …

Is she getting enough shuteye? Shutterstock Jim Horne, University of Leicester Much is said about today’s children not getting enough sleep, a problem blamed on lax bedtimes, and excessive evening computer and mobile phone use. Plus ça change. A hundred or so years ago, it was just as bad – but then excessive homework was a culprit. In 1884, for …