Articles
Cara and Researchers at Risk: Offering a lifeline to academics in danger
For nearly 90 years, Cara (or the Council for At-Risk Academics) has offered a lifeline to researchers and academics working in, or forced to flee from, dangerous global contexts. It works with those currently escaping persecution, those who have been forced into exile, or those who pursue their vital research in a home country ravaged by war or oppression. It […]
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Overturning oppression in the US child welfare system
In the US there’s a growing call from academics and advocates with significant experience in the country’s child welfare system for fundamental reform. Professors Lisa Merkel-Holguin and Ida Drury, colleagues from the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Colorado, and a national advocate, have catalogued multiple stages within the current […]
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Providing better radiation monitoring for nuclear waste
Despite the immense potential benefits of nuclear power, many people are understandably concerned about the dangerous radioactive waste (or radwaste) it generates. To provide reassurance that nuclear waste is being safely stored, Dr Paolo Finocchiaro and colleagues at Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) have developed an advanced new system for monitoring the material’s radioactivity in real-time. Using distributed […]
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Month of birth, ultraviolet radiation exposure, and the development of major mental illnesses
Major mental illnesses (MMIs) are a significant global health burden. Recent data confirms that MMI is associated with an individual’s month of birth (MOB). Levels of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) vary during the calendar year, and over cyclic periods UVR intensity peaks. UVR can cause cellular mutations and affect epigenetic processes, therefore exposure at conception or during early gestation potentially has […]
Out-of-field teaching: New teachers survive under pressure
It is the nightmare of many early-career teachers: to have to teach a subject that’s not your specialism to a class of students who sense your fear. In newly published research, Dr Susan Caldis from Macquarie University in Australia finds that out-of-field teaching is a major issue which particularly affects teachers as they transition from initial teacher education programmes into […]
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Making strides in veterinary pathology: A dedicated career
Mast cell tumours and pancreatic diseases are common in dogs but also present to a lesser degree in other veterinary species, including cats and horses. For these and many other diseases of veterinary species, diagnostic methods and criteria were not well characterised and made determination of prognosis difficult. Changing this, with decades of research into the pathology of veterinary diseases, […]
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Improving the effectiveness of an anticancer fluoropyrimidine by molecular hybridisation
Capecitabine (Cape) – a fluoropyrimidine used primarily in the treatment of breast and colorectal cancer – disrupts the synthesis of DNA in cancer cells following its conversion to 5-fluorouracil (FU). Since FU has been associated with several potentially fatal side effects, Dr Thomas I. Kalman at the University at Buffalo and The State University of New York has developed a […]
Nanomedicine for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and other viruses
While many viral infections can be prevented through vaccination, it can take a long time for vaccinations to be developed for new diseases and many people object to themselves or children taking vaccines. There is a high need for quicker, readily available alternative treatments. Serial entrepreneur Professor Thomas J Webster thinks this could be achieved using nanomaterials. Webster’s research has […]
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NAPLIFE: Advancing nuclear fusion with nanotechnology
Nuclear fusion has long been discussed for its potential as an abundant source of energy. Yet owing to the immense technological challenges involved, the global rollout of the technology still seems a long way off. Dr Tamás Biró and colleagues at the Nano-Plasmonic Laser Inertial Fusion Experiment (NAPLIFE) project, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungary, believe a solution could be […]
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Altitude range shift of the Spanish Fir under climate change
In response to a changing climate, organisms must adapt or migrate to more suitable habitats where the environmental conditions are more favourable. Dr Antonio González-Hernández and his colleagues Dr Diego Nieto-Lugilde, Dr Julio Peñas de Giles, and Professor Francisca Alba-Sánchez, at the universities of Granada and Córdoba, Spain, studied the difference in distribution between two life stages of the Spanish […]
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