Новости за 25.04.2017

For more than 15 years, Jimmy Wales has been the poster boy for the promise and the power of crowd-sourcing. When he launched Wikipedia in 2001, virtually everyone scoffed at the idea of a free and open-sourced online encyclopaedia with articles written by amateurs. Today it is the world’s fifth most visited website, a go-to destination when almost anyone wants to learn about almost anything.

Illustration by Gil Costa, with elements from Servier Medical Art

Most of us believe in free will, particularly when it comes to our eating habits. That’s why most people don’t regard obesity as a disease but rather a moral weakness or lack of willpower. But the free will argument has been taking a bit of a beating lately.

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Young people at the heart of the “devolution revolution” in Manchester say they have been left behind and forgotten by many of today’s politicians. But now – thanks to the enthusiasm of a group of politically active young people in Greater Manchester – they are finally getting their say. And the prospective candidates for the role of “metro mayor” are sitting up and taking notice.

The international press has made much of Marine Le Pen’s announcement that she is standing down from the leadership of her party the National Front. Just after being selected to proceed to the second round of the French election, she explained that, for the rest of the campaign, she had to dedicate herself to rallying support from beyond her own party in order to become “President of all the French”.

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For many British children, the music they grow up listening to with friends, family, parents and relatives is often not reflected in school music lessons. So while their teacher is trying to get them to listen to Mozart, Bach or Beethoven, back home in their bedrooms the radio is often tuned into a very different station.

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Without hardware, there is no science. From Hooke’s microscope to the Hubble telescope, instruments are modern science’s platforms for producing knowledge. But limited access to scientific tools impedes the progress and reach of science by restricting the type of people who can participate in research, favouring those who have access to well-resourced laboratories in industrial or academic institutions.

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The portrayal of a heartbroken woman devouring a tub of ice cream under a duvet is a well-established television cliché – think Bridget Jones. That’s probably because it’s actually quite a common behaviour: 38% of adults say that they eat more when stressed or sad.

It’s already becoming clear that every party except the Conservatives fears the outcome of the impending general election. Even for the SNP, which will no doubt hold on to – if not improve upon – its standing in the last election, the prospect of an increased Tory majority is not a welcome one.

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A variety of indicators suggest that China has come perilously close to a banking crisis. So far, the government has managed to keep things in check. A state-led debt restructuring indicates Chinese officials have learnt some of the lessons of the bad loan crisis faced by state banks in the 1990s. Tight control over banks and their senior personnel has long given China a ready-made platform to control its financial institutions.

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People in the UK are hooked on takeaways and microwave meals, or so we are constantly told by TV chefs and the media. This apparent addiction to fast food is leading to an obesity epidemic.

Already, I’m informed by very well informed guys and girls who are working on the area, and in the area at the moment, that there’s potentially up to a million migrants already, if not more in the pipeline coming up from Central Africa and the Horn of Africa.

Exercises can help women's pelvic floor health during pregnancy and after birth. COLLATERAL/www.shutterstock.com

For millions of women, childbirth is a somewhat daunting yet thoroughly rewarding process. In the western world, many years of medical research and professional experience mean that women have access to expert care before, during and after birth. However, there is still one matter that is not being addressed enough during pregnancy: pelvic floor health. Women often do not realise, and are not properly informed... Читать дальше...

The Cap Arcona burning.

On the afternoon of May 3, 1945, a squadron of RAF Typhoons began their descent to attack Axis shipping in Neustadt Bay, Germany. Below them, the former luxury liner SS Cap Arcona was laden with over 4,500 concentration camp prisoners who had been “evacuated” to the coast – and at around 3pm, the Typhoons from the Second Tactical Air Force, launched their assault.

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Efforts to tackle malaria infections over the past decades have yielded impressive results across the tropics, so much so that full elimination is now a public health priority for many malaria endemic countries.