Новости за 23.05.2017

Genetics or evolution first? No brainer. Areipa.lt

Evolution is one of the trickiest subjects to teach – and not just because some people find it controversial. The ideas are subtle and the language and concepts can be confusing; how many of us have thought that survival of the fittest was an encouragement to go to the gym. Many studies have sought to discover the reasons why evolution is so difficult for students to understand and accept, but few have attempted to find ways to improve the understanding of evolution in the classroom. Читать дальше...

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Oysters were abundant in the waters around the Dornoch Firth in the north-east of Scotland from 10,000 years ago. But overfishing decimated stocks in the late 19th century and the shellfish became extinct. Now, thanks to a groundbreaking environmental project, the local population is witnessing the reappearance of the native mollusc.

Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, is facing a major scandal over a tape purporting to show him condoning bribery and efforts to influence public officials. It’s another in a long series of interconnected public and corporate scandals that’s engulfed the Brazilian elite in recent years. Pedro Dutra Salgado explains a web of events.

After the horror of the Manchester Arena attack, the 2017 general election campaign has been paused, on the agreement of all parties, as the UK tries to come to terms with a terrorist incident. And rightly so: this is not the time for party politics.

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Every day, thousands of social media moderators scroll through feeds of threats, pornography, animal and child cruelty, car crashes and bloody beatings in order to decide what is acceptable and what must be removed. And the leaking of Facebook’s training manuals means we now know what standard they are working to, allowing content most users would find abhorrent.

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The US and Saudi Arabia have signed hundreds of billions of dollars worth of business deals following Donald Trump’s trip to the oil-rich state. The biggest deal was for nearly US$110 billion worth of weapons (extending to US$350 billion over ten years). But a number of smaller agreements were made between Saudi and US firms, as part of Riyadh’s goal to diversify its economy.

On Saturday June 3, the British and Irish Lions will play the first match of their 2017 rugby tour of New Zealand. It is the first of a gruelling ten match schedule which includes games against each of the five Super Rugby sides, the Maori All Blacks and three test matches against the reigning world champions, New Zealand.

When Andy Burnham, a former British government minister, won the election to be Greater Manchester’s Metro Mayor recently he was probably focused on plans for the region’s transport, policing and housing – and, of course, all the behind the scenes political work that goes on when a new role is created.

The attack was the day that we had been warned about by security services. The day we hoped wouldn’t happen. But it happened here. In Manchester, at the Manchester Arena where young girls, known as “Arianators” – after their idol, the singer Ariana Grande – were having the night out they had been waiting for for months.

Greater Manchester Police force has confirmed that the explosion in the foyer of Manchester Arena on May 22 is being treated as a “terrorist incident”.

Nine "Muses" in Renaissance dress enjoy music-making on a pastoral Parnassus, on a painted virginals lid of c.1540. Girolamo Romanino, National Gallery, London, CC BY-SA

Did you once put a poster of your favourite music artist on your bedroom wall? Are there a few faded gig T-shirts in your bottom drawer? Have you ever bought an LP or CD because of the cover art?

The bomb attack on Manchester Arena comes at a time when the whole of the UK is on high terror alert. Across Europe, there recently have been a number of attacks using vehicles and knives – and that has focused many people’s minds on these being the types of terrorist assault to expect. But Manchester has now taught us that we should never forget the acute danger presented by bomb attacks.

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Literature professor Simon John James and physicist Richard Bower were both involved in the curating the exhibition, Time Machines – the past, the future, and how stories take us there. Their conversations quickly revealed to them the many, wildly various, meanings of “time travel”. Here, they discuss how time travelling in literary and scientific terms might, one day, coincide.