The danger of confusing AI mental health support with therapy
Nuva Frames/Shutterstock In a recent episode of British sitcom Amandaland, Anne Flynn turns to ChatGPT for help talking to her teenage son about sex. The episode frames this as “The Chat”: the awkward parent-child conversation many adults dread. What Anne is doing on screen is what many people are now doing in private: taking hard […]
Too hot to be hungry: why our appetite shrinks in the summer heat
During a heatwave, cooling you down becomes much more important than digesting and absorbing a big meal. AnikonaAnn/ Shutterstock When temperatures soar, many people find their appetite suddenly plummets. The idea of eating a hot meal becomes the last thing our minds when the heat becomes too much to bear. This doesn’t happen because the […]
Preston Davey: how can so many agencies know about a child and still miss what’s happening?
Halfpoint/Shutterstock The murder of 13-month-old Preston Davey, who was sexually abused and killed by his adoptive father Jamie Varley, has shocked and saddened people across the country. As horrific details emerged during the trial, many people were left asking the same question: how can so many agencies know about a child and still not see […]
Why the UK shouldn’t expect a general election, even with a new prime minister in place
Keir Starmer’s departure as prime minister will not automatically trigger a general election, despite a clamour from some opposition politicians. But voters do not need to be involved in the selection of his successor because of how the UK political system operates: the Labour party won a five-year mandate in July 2024. The main question […]
The contested legacy of Edmund Dene Morel – the man who exposed the murderous exploits of King Leopold II in the Belgian Congo
Mass murderer: Leopold II of Belgium. Anibal Trejo/Shutterstock Young shipping clerk Edmund Dene Morel was working as for the Liverpool firm Elder Dempster when he noticed what appeared to be a discrepancy in the figures. What Morel found in his investigation of that discrepancy would expose one of the most notorious systems of violence of […]
Vitamin D and calcium supplements may not protect against bone fractures, large new study suggests
Niranjan Acharya/Shutterstock.com For years, many people have taken calcium and vitamin D supplements to help keep their bones strong as they age. Walk into any pharmacy or supermarket and you’ll find shelves full of products promising to support bone health, prevent fractures and reduce the risk of falls. Calcium is an important building block of […]
We found microplastics in hedgehogs – then we traced them back to pet food
When colleagues and I found microplastics in hedgehog droppings, we wanted to know where they were coming from. One answer was surprisingly close to home: pet food. The story began in 2021, when we collected 189 hedgehog faeces samples from residential gardens and rehabilitation centres across the UK. We found plastic in 19% of them. […]
In The Hand of Dante: a striking and ambitious cinematic fever dream
There are few films this year as ambitious as director Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante. Combining manuscript mystery, gangster thriller and spiritual odyssey, the film moves between medieval Italy and the 21st-century criminal underworld in pursuit of questions about creativity, faith, power and redemption. This film is a big, gutsy gamble. Casting a […]
Free will: does refusing to believe in it make you a ‘bad’ person? Research is challenging this old idea
Did you click on this article out of your own free will? Or was it predetermined by the cosmic evolution of particles, unfolding in an unbroken chain reaction set in motion by the big bang? Perhaps you think random quantum processes or unconscious brain activity were responsible? Whether you are philosophically inclined or not, the […]
We recreated the legendary heatwave summer of 1976 in today’s climate – here’s what we found
The summer of 1976 was an extraordinary heatwave for its time. With 15 consecutive days of temperatures over 32°C, it was an unprecedented length for a UK heatwave, coming at the end of a year-long drought. This led to severe water shortages and frequent wildfires, followed by flash floods. But the climate has substantially changed […]