Footballer Christian Eriksen’s ICD kept his heart beating after he collapsed on the pitch – here’s how these devices work
Eriksen was fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator after suffering a cardiac arrest in 2021. Vitalii Vitleo/ Shutterstock When Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed during a friendly match recently, many people would have been surprised to see the footballer walk off the pitch after regaining consciousness. The event brought back memories of Eriksen’s cardiac arrest […]
‘Lime bike leg’: what doctors are seeing in ebike crashes
Peter Porrini/Shutterstock.com A man in his 30s arrived at the Royal London Major Trauma Centre after what sounded like a relatively minor cycling accident. He had been riding a shared ebike when he lost control and fell. By the time I met him, scans had revealed a complex fracture around his ankle where his shinbone […]
Hip dips: what are they and can you really get rid of them?
Jeorge/Shutterstock.com Hip dips are having a moment. The perfectly normal indentations that sit below your hips on the outer thigh have become the latest body feature to be scrutinised, fixed and agonised over on social media. But what are they? Can you actually get rid of them? And should you even try? Formally known as […]
Nasa names Artemis III crew, but a rocket explosion has thrown US Moon plans into turmoil
The Artemis III mission will involve launching the Orion spacecraft into low Earth orbit. Nasa/Esa/ATG Medialab Nasa has named the crew of its next Artemis mission, which it promised would be an “extraordinary demonstration of what is possible”. Artemis is the ambitious American-led effort to the return humans to the lunar surface by 2028. However, […]
Left-of-centre parties like Labour face challenges from both right and left – here’s what they can do about it
Dave Colman/Shutterstock These are tough times for social democratic parties. Defined by their support for a strong welfare state within a capitalist economy, these parties have seen their traditional voter bases erode in recent years. And in government, they appear to many to have abandoned any last signs of a radical reformist outlook. It has […]
Mamma Mia! is Shakespeare’s Tempest in campy musical disguise
Mamma Mia!, the 1999 jukebox musical built around the songs of the pop group ABBA, became a huge hit in the theatre internationally and later a commercially successful feature film. It has inspired a host of spinoffs including a prequel film, an immersive dining experience and fan fiction. What if I told you that it […]
Can AI really spot the next football superstar – or is it changing the game in troubling ways?
Luca Toni of Bayern Munich in action. Tsutomu Takasu/Wikimedia, CC BY Football fans everywhere are gearing up to celebrate the sport’s most skilled athletes as they prepare for the start of another Fifa World Cup. But few get to see how the next generation of Messis and Ronaldos are discovered. For decades, the beautiful game […]
Spice Girls at 30: how girl power changed pop
The Spice Girls (L-R) Melanie C, Emma Bunton, Mel B, Victoria Beckham and Geri Halliwell. Featureflash Photo Agency/Canva Thirty years ago, five young women from the UK redefined what a pop group could be. When the Spice Girls burst onto the scene in 1996 with their debut single Wannabe, they helped to reshape discussions around […]
Why the EU economy should embrace digital currencies to become less dependent on the US
Ink Drop/Shutterstock Compared to other parts of the world, the EU on the whole has been fairly reluctant to embrace digital economic innovation. The bloc has been suspicious of cryptocurrencies, and treated them as a potential threat to a financial system where stability is paramount. But the first half of 2026 has been full of […]
Could the war in Ukraine bring political change to Russia?
Volodymyr Zelensky recently suggested that the war in Ukraine was beginning to turn in his country’s favour. The Ukrainian president insisted that Russia was “losing the initiative each day”. These comments came days after Zelensky wrote an open letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in which he called for direct talks to end the […]