When things go bump in the night: how our brains trick us into hearing things that aren’t there
Sometimes our brain plays tricks on us. MAYA LAB/ Shutterstock It’s three in the morning. You’ve woken from a dead sleep because you’ve heard a thud in the darkness or a floorboard creaking downstairs. Or perhaps you’ve woken because you have the unmistakable sensation you’re not alone. During daylight, these phenomena might be dismissed as […]
Is sexual objectification hard-wired? Our study used electrical brain stimulation to find out
When people view sexualised images of women, they tend to remember them less well than sexualised images of men; a quirk of memory that psychologists link to objectification. But in our new study, my colleagues and I found an unlikely “fix” – applying a mild electrical current to the forehead. Objectification means seeing someone as […]
Deadlock ahead for Israel as election fails to deliver an alternative to Netanyahu coalition
The Israeli political system presently revolves around three blocs jockeying for position after the election failed to provide a decisive outcome. Based on the latest figures – which are likely to change as absentee ballots and army votes are counted – the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, currently leads a coalition based around his own party, […]
Why Donald Trump’s foreign policy could cost Republicans in the midterm elections
When voters enter polling booths across the United States next week to cast their ballots in the midterm elections, very few will be thinking explicitly about foreign policy. In a recent survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, many people across the political spectrum named inflation and the cost of living as the issue […]
70 years ago the Suez crisis exposed British relative decline. Today, the Iran conflict could be doing the same for the US
Like the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal is a vital waterway for global trade. Viktor Hladchenko/Shutterstock Months after the US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran, the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. The UK chose not to get directly involved in the conflict. Nonetheless, it has been exposed to the crisis […]
Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto turned architecture into horror’s greatest weapon
What does a haunted castle look like? Perhaps you imagine a ramshackle or imposing structure with towers, pinnacles and undefined spaces hidden in the shadows; some of its “prickly” gothic details picked out by moonlight. Threateningly ill-defined buildings, enough for our imagination to fill in the gaps, seem to be the ideal catalyst to spark […]
How London’s 1838 ‘great stink’ created the modern vampire
Long before modern medicine could name the invisible terrors ravaging Victorian Britain, the public found a face for contagion: the vampire. A new exhibition at the University of Leeds’s Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, Quite Shameless: Cultural Reflections on the Vampire, explores how this supernatural predator became a stand-in for the period’s deepest anxieties about […]
Before bans for under-16s, we need to ask: what counts as social media?
KlingSup/Shutterstock Amid growing concerns about teenagers’ mental health and wellbeing, governments around the world are considering or enacting new restrictions on young people’s access to social media. Australia has already legislated a ban on social media for under-16s, and the UK government has announced plans to introduce similar restrictions from spring 2027. Yet a fundamental […]
The UK wants ‘AI sovereignty’ to cut its reliance on foreign tech – here’s how that can be achieved
Pixels Hunter / Shutterstock The UK government wants to grow the country’s native AI industry to reduce its dependence on systems made by foreign companies. In the Budget on October 28, Chancellor John Healey announced more money – £60 million – for the national Sovereign AI Fund to support promising UK AI companies. The government […]
Pan’s Labyrinth at 20: how Guillermo del Toro created his timeless dark fairy tale
Fantasy accounts for only about 28 minutes of Pan’s Labyrinth’s 119-minute running time, yet these supernatural scenes are what many viewers remember most about Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film. A rewatch 20 years on makes it easy to see why. Despite everything del Toro has achieved since, including his Oscar success for The Shape of […]