Gillian O’Brien, Reader in Modern Irish History, Liverpool John Moores University Spike Island – the former fortress and prison off the coast of County Cork in Ireland – has been named Europe’s leading tourist attraction at the World Travel Awards. The island beat off competition from Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower and Rome’s Colosseum […]
Why African families are larger than those of other continents
Gilles Pison, Professeur au Muséum national d’histoire naturelle et chercheur associé à l’INED, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN) – Sorbonne Universités In Africa women have 4.5 children on average, while in Asia the figure is 2.1 children, in Latin America 2.0, in North America 1.9 and in Europe 1.6. On average across the world women had […]
Ancient DNA unearths fascinating secrets. But what about the ethics?
Alan G Morris, Professor of Biological Anthropology, University of Cape Town Ancient DNA is starting to reveal the secrets of how people emerged from, moved into or moved around Africa. Human skeletons from Saldanha Bay in South Africa’s Western Cape province, Ballito Bay in its KwaZulu-Natal province and Mota Cave in Ethiopia; Tanzania and now […]
Christiane Amanpour on FAKE News
Known worldwide for her courage and clarity, Christiane Amanpour has spent the past three decades interviewing business, cultural and political leaders who have shaped history. In conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Amanpour discusses fake news, objectivity in journalism, the leadership vacuum in global politics and more, sharing her wisdom along the way. “Be […]
A Global Food Crisis is closer than you think
Sara Menker quit a career in commodities trading to figure out how the global value chain of agriculture works. Her discoveries have led to some startling predictions: “We could have a tipping point in global food and agriculture if surging demand surpasses the agricultural system’s structural capacity to produce food,” she says. “People could […]
How different human features developed
Scientists estimate that our human ancestors began to diverge from the African primates between eight million and five million years ago. This figure is the result of studying the genetic makeup of humans and apes, and then calculating approximately how long it took for those differences to develop. Using similar methods of comparing genetic variation […]
Best jobs for your personality type
World Economic Forum, Business Insider The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test assigns people one of 16 personality types based on how they measure themselves against four criteria — it’s the test where you can find out if you’re an ESTJ or an ISTP. Statistics from a few years ago show that around 80% of Fortune […]
Rare insight into Kim Jong-un
Want to study at Oxford or Harvard for free?
World Economic Forum The University of Oxford has unveiled its first massive open online course (Mooc), becoming the latest prestigious institution to join the Mooc movement. Oxford – which took the top spot in the 2016-17 Times Higher Education World University Rankings – announced it will offer the economics course from February 2017 in partnership […]
Spinning sail technology is poised to bring back wind-powered ships
When wind passes the spinning rotor sail, the air flow accelerates on one side and decelerates on the opposite side. This creates a thrust force that is perpendicular to the wind flow direction. Although it takes energy in the form of electricity to spin the sail, the thrust it produces means the engines can be […]
