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Video games are helping players imagine the realities of climate migration

Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock While many people migrate because of social and economic inequalities, forced migration is caused by political conflicts, lack of access to food, and – increasingly – a lack of access to water. Research shows that climate change is making many of these issues worse. Recent research suggests that, for 30 million people who experience […]

Expert Q&A: why did so many buildings collapse in Venezuela’s double earthquake?

More than 500 people have been killed in Venezuela following powerful back-to-back earthquakes, with many more injured. Rescue teams have also been trying to locate people trapped in collapsed buildings. Here, Raffaele De Risi, associate professor in civil engineering at the University of Bristol, answered our questions about the role building design may have played […]

How padel disrupted the genteel world of lawn tennis

Damiano Buffo/Shutterstock Padel has captured the British sporting imagination. Combining aspects of tennis and squash, and played across a net but within a walled court, padel was invented in Mexico in 1969. In the intervening half century, it cultivated a significant following in Latin America and Spain. Padel is the second most popular participation sport […]

Andy Burnham wants to turbocharge devolution. He’ll have to convince the Treasury

Andy Burnham has built his reputation on championing regional devolution – as Greater Manchester’s mayor he was celebrated as the “king of the north”. If, as now seems likely, he becomes prime minister next month, a “devolution blitz” is expected to follow. But it will only succeed if Burnham can bring the Treasury with him. […]

As the temperature rises, so do the risks for people living with interstitial lung disease

voronaman/Shutterstock For most people, a hot summer’s day is uncomfortable. For someone with scarred lungs, it can become a medical risk. People living with interstitial lung disease (ILD) are especially vulnerable during extreme heat. As climate change drives more frequent and intense heatwaves, people with ILD will need better protection from hot weather and related […]

A goat’s tooth may have solved a 100-year debate about ancient Greek farming

The agricultural economy was the backbone of wealth in ancient Greece. Food brought people together, whether in smaller groups at a wine-drinking symposium, or the entire community in a sacrificial feast of epic proportions. In The Odyssey, the ancient Greek epic poem, Odysseus’s son joins one of these early feasts – a community barbecue of […]

Venezuela earthquakes add tragic new layer to the country’s humanitarian crisis

Venezuela has a well-documented vulnerability to earthquakes. The country sits on the boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, resulting in routine tremors and causing historical earthquake disasters. But the experience of a “doublet”, a pair of 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes 40 seconds apart, on June 24 was a rare misfortune. From an […]