Why some people lose their accents but others don’t – linguistic expert

FGC/Shutterstock Jane Setter, University of Reading The way a person speaks is an intrinsic part of their identity. It’s tribal, marking a speaker as being from one social group or another. Accents are a sign of belonging as much as something that separates communities. Yet we can probably all think of examples of people who seem to have “lost” their regional or national accent and of others…

View On WordPress

Nobel prizes most often go to researchers who defy specialization – winners are creative thinkers who synthesize innovations from varied fields and even hobbies

Innovative ideas spring from many sources, research finds. Yuichiro Chino/Moment via Getty Images Robert Root-Bernstein, Michigan State University and Michele Root-Bernstein, Michigan State University Experts often recommend that people specialize in one field of work or research to maximize their chances of success. Yet our recently published research indicates that successful innovators take a…

View On WordPress

Four common misconceptions about quantum physics

Shrödinger’s cat is world famous, but what does it really mean? Robert Couse-Baker/Flickr, CC BY-SA Alessandro Fedrizzi, Heriot-Watt University and Mehul Malik, Heriot-Watt University Quantum mechanics, the theory which rules the microworld of atoms and particles, certainly has the X factor. Unlike many other areas of physics, it is bizarre and counter-intuitive, which makes it dazzling and…

View On WordPress

The world’s first Islamic art biennale shines a light on African artists

Marco Cappelletti/OMA/Islamic Arts Biennale Sumayya Vally, UCL The inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale is underway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Biennales are large and prestigious international art exhibitions held every two years.) This important new event for the Muslim world features numerous African artists. And the biennale’s artistic director is Sumayya Vally, a South African architecture…

View On WordPress

Gaza now has a toxic ‘biosphere of war’ that no one can escape

Mark Zeitoun, University of East Anglia and Ghassan Abu Sitta, American University of Beirut Gaza has often been invaded for its water. Every army leaving or entering the Sinai desert, whether Babylonians, Alexander the Great, the Ottomans, or the British, has sought relief there. But today the water of Gaza highlights a toxic situation that is spiralling out of control. A combination of repeated…

View On WordPress

Brazil’s gun ownership boom and why it’s making a lot of people nervous – podcast

President Jair Bolsonaro relaxed rules around private gun ownership. Joedson Alves/EPA Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation Soon after Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil in 2018, he began making it a lot easier for people in the country to buy guns. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we speak to two experts about Brazil’s boom in private…

View On WordPress

Giorgia Meloni and the return of fascism: how Italy got here

George Newth, University of Bath The rise of far-right politician Giorgia Meloni has left many outside Italy asking how her brand of what many argue is fascism can achieve such prominence in a country that has experienced life under the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. The answer can be traced back to a recent normalisation of reactionary politics. In truth, the existence of a far-right…

View On WordPress

Fast fashion: why your online returns may end up in landfill – and what can be done about it

Customer orders multiple items, many of which may be returned. Maridav/Shutterstock Patsy Perry, Manchester Metropolitan University Fashion has a notorious environmental footprint, accounting for up to 10% of global carbon dioxide output. This is exacerbated by a fast fashion business model which encourages the frequent purchase of low-priced and non-durable items. Around 30% of online purchases…

View On WordPress

You really can die of sadness – and also happiness

Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Adam Taylor, Lancaster University Dying of a broken heart was just a figure of speech until 2002 when Dr Hikaru Sato and colleagues at Hiroshima City Hospital described it in a study. Sato named the condition takotsubo cardiomyopathy. It was quickly dubbed “broken heart syndrome”. More recently, scientists have discovered that you can also die of an excess of…

View On WordPress

Ukraine war: why Moscow could go nuclear over Kyiv’s ‘threats’ to Crimea

Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham and Tatyana Malyarenko, National University Odesa Law Academy As the war in Ukraine is about to head into its sixth month, the ferocity with which it is fought shows no signs of abating – neither on the battlefield, nor in the rhetoric emerging from Moscow and Kyiv. Russian attacks continue to target Ukrainian cities such as Vinnytsia in western Ukraine that…

View On WordPress

Sudan’s people toppled a dictator – despite the war they’re still working to bring about democratic change

Civilians protest in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, in December 2022. AFP via Getty Images Linda Bishai, George Washington University While Sudan’s generals have unleashed indiscriminate destruction and occupation on wide swaths of the capital, Khartoum, neighbourhood resistance committees and pro-democracy activists have stepped up to respond to the needs of citizens. They have risked their lives…

View On WordPress

The Nakba: how the Palestinians were expelled from Israel

Evicted: about 750,000 Palestinians were killed or expelled from their land during the Nakba which began on May 15 1948. Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock Marwan Darweish, Coventry University Until 1948, Lajjun was a small village about ten miles south of Nazareth in one of the most fertile valleys in Palestine. Since 1949, the area has been occupied by Jewish settlers who established Kibbutz Meggido…

View On WordPress

Too many digital distractions are eroding our ability to read deeply, and here’s how we can become aware of what’s happening — podcast

Constant distractions affect our ability to concentrate. (Shutterstock) Nehal El-Hadi, The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation Staying focused on a single task for a long period of time is a growing concern. We are confronted with and have to process incredible amounts of information daily, and our brains are often functioning in overdrive to manage the processing and…

View On WordPress

Salman Rushdie’s Victory City review: a storyteller at the height of his powers

Florian Stadtler, University of Bristol Victory City is an epic chronicle of the rise and fall of Vijayanagar (the capital city of the historic southern Indian Vijayanagara empire), which acquires the name “Bisnaga” through ill-fated attempts at pronunciation by a Portuguese traveller. The story unfolds as a fictional retelling of Bisnaga’s history, premised on the archaeological discovery of the…

View On WordPress

Death and dying: how different cultures deal with grief and mourning

John Frederick Wilson, York St John University Grief is a universal emotion. It’s something we all feel, no matter where we come from or what we’ve been through. Grief comes for us all and as humans who form close relationships with other people, it’s hard to avoid. Studies of grieving brains – be it scans of the brain regions which process grief, or measures of the stress hormone cortisol that…

View On WordPress

The 2,700-year-old rock carvings from when Nineveh was the most dazzling city in the world

<figure> <img src=”https://images.theconversation.com/files/501245/original/file-20221215-23-zd431c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip&#8221; /> <figcaption> Sennacherib – his face deliberately damaged in antiquity – presides over captives from the Levantine city of Lachish. <span class=”attribution”><a class=”source”…

View On WordPress