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​Feeling unwell after taking medicine? Here’s how to report it

VH-studio/Shutterstock.com Take a medicine and start feeling a bit off, and it’s easy to assume you’re imagining it. Sometimes you’re not. It could be a known side-effect – the sort of thing listed on the leaflet in the packaging. Or it could be something known as an adverse drug reaction, or ADR. The terms get […]

How wildfires and heatwaves affect your travel insurance

As wildfires blazed on the Cap Ferret peninsula in south-west France in July, some people left by boat. The roads out run through dense pine plantation, the fire had reached them, and the gendarmerie put those without cars onto ferries. Around 44,000 people fled Cap Ferret, a stretch of oyster villages and holiday homes an […]

Are summer holidays good for children? It’s time researchers asked them

SeventyFour/Shutterstock When academic research has explored the impact of school summer holidays, it has often focused on the costs to parents and to children’s learning and health. The childcare juggle, the costs of summer holiday activities and the potential impact of losses in learning or more sedentary behaviour by children in the holidays do have […]

AI-generated fashion models: innovation, illusion or a step too far?

StreetOnCamara_Comeback/Shutterstock Fashion has always sold aspiration. Long before artificial intelligence (AI), it relied on carefully constructed images of beauty through styling, lighting, makeup and, more recently, digital retouching. While consumers may have understood that these images do not reflect everyday reality, they continued to engage with them. They followed fashion trends and they bought the […]

Britain’s quarter century: shrinking families, ethnic tensions and queer winners and losers

In this third part in our series on how the UK has changed in the past 25 years, we turn to demographics, immigration, social attitudes and LGBTQ+ lives. Demographics Athina Vlachantoni, professor of gerontology and social policy, University of Southampton Jane Falkingham, professor of demography and international social policy, University of Southampton Maria Evandrou, professor […]

Hot weather can make pain worse – here’s why

Hot weather can affect how we experience pain. DexonDee/ Shutterstock This summer’s amber heat warnings have brought with them many risks to health. Many people have experienced these health effects first-hand: brain fog, physical fatigue, restless nights and reduced productivity. If that sounds familiar, you’re not imagining it. Science shows that high temperatures can affect […]

You can love an AI but can it love you back? Philosophy has the answer

We often speak of loving things like a cosy sweater or new camera. But this talk is not generally taken literally. It’s a kind of emotional shorthand. We use it to express our fondness for precious objects. Life and love are complicated, however. And sometimes, people do proclaim romantic love for inanimate objects. They form […]