Can houseplants really purify the air in your home? What the science actually says
GoodStudio/Shutterstock The question sounds simple. The answer, once you examine the actual measurement science behind it, is more interesting than either “yes” or “no”. The houseplant-as-air-purifier idea can be traced to a 1989 US study, conducted for Nasa as part of research into closed-loop life support systems for space stations. In sealed, controlled chambers, certain […]
AI in the emergency department: promising, powerful but still unproven
Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com Artificial intelligence can now outperform doctors at diagnosing patients in the emergency department, according to a new study in Science. The AI was given written notes from real emergency department records from a hospital in Boston, US, and asked to weigh in at different points during the patient’s care. At the earliest stage – […]
What Iran’s absence from the Venice Biennale reveals about art and politics
Just days before the opening of the 2026 Venice Biennale, organisers announced that Iran would no longer participate. A short statement posted to the Venice Biennale website on May 4 said: “With regard to the National Participations in the 61st International Art Exhibition…it has been announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not participate.” […]
‘A life-and-death matter’: understanding how Ofsted inspections risk suicidal thoughts in teachers
Zhuravlev Andrey/Shutterstock Ofsted, the schools inspectorate in England, was the subject of a UK parliamentary inquiry after the death by suicide of Ruth Perry, headteacher of Caversham Primary school in Berkshire, in 2023. The coroner’s report had concluded that Perry’s death was “suicide, contributed to by an Ofsted inspection”. The parliamentary inquiry called for submissions […]
The 2025 Sir Paul Curran award for academic journalism goes to Jeremy Howick
Jeremy Howick, Professor of Empathic Healthcare at the University of Leicester, receives the Sir Paul Curran award for 2025 from Lady Helen Curran, at the event at Bayes Business School. The Conversation Jeremy Howick, Professor of Empathic Healthcare and Director of the Stoneygate Centre at the University of Leicester, has been named this year’s winner […]
Kokuho is Japan’s highest ever grossing live-action film – a lavish kabuki epic about talent, lineage and sacrifice
Kokuho is a colourful, lengthy epic, spanning five decades and running almost three hours, set in the world of kabuki – Japan’s most popular traditional performing art. It has been a huge hit in Japan, becoming the country’s highest ever grossing live-action film. The film’s title translates as “national treasure”. But it does not refer […]
How The Devil Wears Prada 2 speaks the hidden language of fashion
Fashion has always done more than keep us warm. It’s also a social language, quietly organising ideas of status, taste and belonging. What made the first The Devil Wears Prada (2006) so satisfying was watching main character Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) learn, often the hard way, that clothes were never just clothes. At first she […]
Welsh election: why immigration is important to voters in the ‘Nation of Sanctuary’
Kariting Picah/Shutterstock Immigration is receiving much attention in the run-up to the Welsh election. This might seem odd at first because the Welsh parliament (the Senedd) has no power over immigration. It can’t make laws on who enters the country, how asylum claims are handled or who gets citizenship. All of that is controlled by […]
Protecting pollinating insects could improve diets and livelihoods worldwide – new study
Apples are an important source of revenue in Jumla, but their yield depends heavily on insect pollinators Tom Timberlake, CC BY-NC-ND In Nepal’s remote mountain district of Jumla, preparation for a family meal begins long before food reaches the cooking pot. It starts in terraced fields of beans, buckwheat, apples and pumpkins that must be […]
There’s little love for the SNP – so why does the party look set to win in Scotland?
Barring a last-minute surprise, the Holyrood election will probably return the Scottish National Party (SNP) to government for the fifth time in a row. The nationalists have been in office for so long that thousands of Scots who weren’t even born when the party entered office in 2007 are now going to the polls for […]