Pizza lovers and savoury snackers: what secondary school pupils choose to eat
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Changes are on the horizon for the food that students can choose in English schools. The government is proposing updates to the school food standards, which set out what schools can serve. The changes are aimed at increasing fibre and reducing fat, sugar and salt in school food. These will, for example, […]
Wes Streeting’s health bill brings back ‘democratic control’ of the NHS in England – but what does it mean?
repic/Shutterstock.com Most NHS patients never think about who has legal responsibility for the health service. They notice waiting times, whether local services disappear and whether they can get treatment when they need it. But Wes Streeting’s new health bill changes who has the ultimate power to make those decisions, and may make the NHS far […]
World’s first AI-designed vaccine explained
Sooksaard/Shutterstock.com Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed what they describe as a fundamentally new type of vaccine using artificial intelligence (AI). The vaccine’s key component was designed entirely by AI and has now been tested in people for the first time. The goal is ambitious: a single vaccine that works not just against […]
Why do my fingers go wrinkly in the bath?
Karkacheva Anna/Shutterstock Have you ever stayed in the bath or swimming pool for ages and noticed that your fingers and toes went all wrinkly? Well, 11-year-old Maya from London wanted to know why that happens. She joins our host Eloise to get the answer from biologist Tom Smulders on the first episode of season two […]
Rhino horn: why South Africa wants to revive the international trade, and why critics fear the consequences
Jason Gilchrist South Africa wants to expand exports of rhino hunting trophies and other wildlife products. The move relies on an exemption process within the international treaty that has largely restricted rhino horn trade since 1977. It’s a shift that could reopen one of global conservation’s fiercest debates: does a legal trade protect endangered species […]
If AI is addictive, where does the responsibility lie – with big tech or its users?
When I talk to my son, an engineering student, and we have a question or disagreement, he immediately turns to ChatGPT as his primary source of information and confirmation. He is not alone in this. The use of generative AI tools has exploded across different demographic groups. For many people, these tools can be entertaining, […]
Vision, Europe of the Future conference – in partnership with The Conversation
The Conversation is once again delighted to be a media partner of the think tank Vision, as it hosts its seventh ‘Europe of the Future’ conference in Siena, Italy. The partnership has seen Conversation editors and authors engage in previous editions of the conference, which brings together media, academics, policymakers and industry from across the […]
Despite toxic reputation, our research shows podcasts can help men’s mental health
PavelKant/Shutterstock Over the last decade, podcasts have become big business, with more than a fifth of UK adults listening to podcasts each week. The format particularly resonates with men, who are more likely than women to identify as podcast fans. Men are also overrepresented as podcast hosts. In a society where the political divide between […]
River wildlife moves freely once dams are removed – but so too can invasive species
Weirs and dams act as barriers within river ecosystems – removing them affects how aquatic wildlife and invasive species move. Bardhok Ndoji/Shutterstock Almost a quarter of all freshwater species are threatened with extinction. The removal of human-made barriers from rivers, such as dams and weirs, is a popular way to restore water flow and sediment […]
Will AI really make banking better for customers?
Dorde Krstic/Shutterstock AI is changing how people bank, save, borrow and ask for help. It could make finance faster, cheaper – and even more personal. But if customers cannot understand decisions, challenge mistakes or reach a human when things go wrong, “smart” finance may simply become a more efficient way to frustrate people. In the […]