My unsung hero of science: William Adams, the Bombay bureaucrat whose vision of a solar future was dashed by colonial conservatism
William Adams was entranced by energy. As a young man, his interest was nursed by working as a clerk in a London patent office in the 1860s. This gave him an early look at some of the first British designs for exploiting solar energy using mirrors, water or both. Adams would later recount his excitement […]
Ibuprofen for joint pain: what you really need to know
george martin studio/ Shutterstock Millions of people in the UK suffer from joint pain and arthritis. But with long wait times for scans, specialist appointments, physiotherapy and joint replacement surgery, many people turn to over-the-counter medicines, such as ibuprofen, to manage their joint pain, stay active and continue working. Ibuprofen is one of the most […]
Dealing with the heat
In Greece many houses are painted white, research shows this helps homes remain cooler. Kalpokaite Photography/Shutterstock This roundup of The Conversation’s environment coverage was first published in our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter, Imagine. I’m thinking of painting my roof white. It’s not about making it look prettier, it’s because my bedroom is right underneath […]
What counts as queer art? New book expands the boundaries of identity and expression
Queer Art, by curators Mollie E. Barnes and Gemma Rolls-Bentley, isn’t afraid to ask questions: what queerness is, what queer art can be, and why queer art matters. The book’s introduction states that “queer art is not a genre but a gesture; a refusal to be pinned down by fixed identity categories”. Queerness in art […]
Somali piracy is back – fuelled by political turmoil, aid cuts and the Iran war
On the evening of April 26, the Egyptian merchant vessel Sward was hijacked by armed men a few miles off the Somali coast. It was steered towards an anchorage near the port of Garacad in Puntland, a semi-autonomous state in north-eastern Somalia. Over the following days, further armed men joined the Sward as well as […]
Why your wearable health tracker can make you feel anxious
An unexpected smartwatch reading may make you think something is wrong and cause worry. Krakenimages.com/ Shutterstock Millions of people use a wearable health and fitness tracker. These devices can be useful for monitoring activity levels, sleep quality and heart rate. But for some, wearables can have unintended consequences on wellbeing. This is something I encountered […]
A dangerous dam-building race is threatening South Asia’s shared rivers
Bangladesh’s many rivers. Best-Backgrounds / Shutterstock Bangladesh has just approved one of the largest river engineering projects its history: the Padma Barrage, a vast river-control project intended to restore water in the country’s drought-prone southwest. It comes at a dangerous moment for South Asia’s rivers. China is building the world’s largest hydropower dam upstream on […]
Marilyn Monroe at 100: Hollywood made her a myth – she spent her life resisting it
“I can be smart when it matters, but most men don’t like it,” says Lorelei Lee in the 1953 comedy musical, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. This famous quip from Howard Hawks’ film sums up for us the fate of the star who uttered it. Marilyn Monroe confronted the pitilessness of the 1950s Hollywood studio system during […]
Why Donald Trump’s latest plan for peace is a non-starter
Sooner or later in every armed conflict, someone will trot out the well-worn aphorism that “Truth is the first casualty of war.” And certainly, in the Iran war truth beat a hasty retreat as soon as the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran and Lebanon on February 28. But what was meant to […]
How and where global 2 billion barrels of strategic oil reserves are stockpiled
The U.S. stores its strategic oil reserves in subterranean salt caverns along the Gulf Coast, like this one in West Hackberry, Louisiana, photographed on June 1, 1980. Robert Nickelsberg/Hulton Archive via Getty Images Drive on Interstate 10 along the Gulf Coast of the United States, through Louisiana and into Texas, and you’ll see signs of […]