Articles Archives

Behavioural Sciences

Rethinking leadership in complex adaptive systems

Leadership is a cornerstone of business school syllabi, but it is usually focused on organisational leadership. But what about the leadership needed to deal with global issues that cross geographic, legislative, geopolitical, socio-economic, and structural boundaries, and demand the interplay between state, corporate and non-governmental actors? Professor Margaret F Sloan of James Madison University, in Virginia, US, considers such issues […]

Engineering & Technology

Durability of wood – integration of experimental and numerical approach

If a building is to have a lifetime of fifty years or more, it is important to be able to predict how the construction materials will fare in that timespan. This is particularly challenging for natural materials like wood due to natural differences in the structure. Serena Gambarelli and Josipa Bošnjak at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, employ a hygro-mechanical […]

Health & Medicine

A new strategy for the treatment of chronic wounds

Wound healing is highly regulated, but oxidative stress (OS) can disturb this healing process in chronic wounds. To better understand the process of initiating chronicity, Dr Manuela Martins-Green and her colleagues at the University of California investigated the impact of increased OS levels on wound healing by stimulating chronic wound development in a diabetic mouse model. The team provides insight […]

Thought Leaders

A life in literature: An interview with Professor Nicholas Royle

Nicholas Royle is Professor of English at the University of Sussex and founding director of the Centre for Creative and Critical Thought. Since publishing his first work of criticism – Telepathy and Literature – in 1991, his creative output has been consistently varied and rewarding, blurring any firm conception of form or genre. Royle remains most widely known, perhaps, for […]

Physical Sciences

Cascading energy: Explaining fluctuations in the solar wind

Originating from the dynamic upper reaches of the Sun’s atmosphere, the influence of solar wind can be felt throughout the solar system. We sat down with Dr Charles Smith at the University of New Hampshire to discuss how the latest theories of fluid dynamics, combined with observations from spacecraft missions, can help us to understand turbulence in the interplanetary plasma. […]

Physical Sciences

How geometry expresses the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Physicists have long struggled to explain how the inevitable increase in the universe’s entropy can be reconciled with the reversible laws of quantum mechanics. Now, Professor Chris Jeynes at the University of Surrey Ion Beam Centre, UK, believes he has found a solution in geometry. This new geometrical thermodynamics shows how the stability in time of structures as diverse as […]

Earth & Environment

Parachute science and Caribbean plastic pollution

Marine litter research in the Caribbean’s Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is imperative for protecting local communities and ecosystems from the effects of plastic pollution. Work to resolve the damage caused by marine debris, however, is being undermined by ‘parachute science’, where scientists from outside SIDS conduct research and leave without consulting or collaborating with local experts. Dr Aleke Stöfen-O’Brien […]

Earth & Environment

Microwave soil heating can reduce arsenic absorption of rice plants

Rice is a staple food for much of the world’s population, but it is also highly prone to absorbing environmental arsenic compared to other cereal crops. Biochar from microwave-assisted pyrolysis – microwave heating under low oxygen conditions – has been shown to remove contaminants from soil. Microwave soil heating also increases crop growth. Dr Graham Brodie, Governor of the International […]

Earth & Environment

(Un)sustainability in the Swiss fish market

Sustainability of fish as a food is a highly complex issue, especially in a global market with wildly varying measures and priorities in fish production and harvesting. Urs Baumgartner, environmental scientist, and Dr Elisabeth Bürgi Bonanomi, legal scientist and expert in sustainable trade regulation, tried to get a clearer picture of sustainability in the fish market of Switzerland, which imports […]

Health & Medicine

Shining a spotlight on diabetic retinal detachment

Diabetes mellitus affects millions of people globally. Patients are at risk of associated diseases and often encounter problems with their eyesight. Dr Miguel A Quiroz-Reyes, retina specialist at Oftalmologia Integral ABC, Mexico City, Mexico, set out to investigate the outcomes of diabetic patients with advanced complications of the retina. These patients had developed diabetic macula-off tractional retinal detachment, a known […]