Новости за 14.07.2017

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Discrimination is a great taboo of our times, and yet one huge industry gets away with it every day. The insurance sector looks at us as risk with legs. It puts us into groups, and if we are in a group deemed riskier, we have to pay more. It’s even written into law. Anti-discrimination legislation usually includes exemptions for insurance pricing.

Only a few weeks after being diagnosed with a late-stage liver cancer in late May 2017, the world learned that China’s most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, died at 61 in a hospital in the north-east region of China, where he was born. As the poetess Tang Danhong wrote, he departed as “an innocent prisoner into the eternal light” (无罪的囚徒，融入永恒的光芒). What a tragedy for a man who fought most of his life for freedom to live out his last days in a hospital bed under lock and key.

Bioblocks, created for the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon. Swansea University, Author provided

Research is the lifeblood of modern universities, but there are very few ways for those behind the academic output to show the real creativity and emotion that underpins it. The story of the research is lost – the many failures that led to the results, the often tortuous process, or the ecstatic highs of successes and the serendipitous path that changes the researcher’s career all fall by the wayside.

Gresham College

It is a truth universally acknowledged that two centuries on from the death of Jane Austen, the enthusiasm for her work and the Regency world she represents is more alive than ever. Austen herself might marvel at this. She had to buy her first manuscript back from a publisher because it came to nothing, and published anonymously during her lifetime. Yet so many people still feel a connection to her and her writing.

Emily Alderton, Author provided

Over the past century half of the world’s ponds and wetlands have been destroyed, with many being filled in and turned into agricultural land. However, all is not lost, and it is possible to “resurrect” these buried habitats from the seeds and eggs stored within their historic sediments. A new conservation approach pioneered by the UCL Pond Restoration Research Group can restore aquatic habitats lost to the landscape for centuries.

SMEs are crucial to the UK's economic well-being. shutterstock.com

The decisions that the next UK government makes in response to Brexit could either add billions to the nation’s economy or risk decimating the country’s more than 264,000 manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

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When it comes to sports, die-hard fans are often thought of as the men in the crowd. But my new research shows, that despite popular stereotypes of women lacking sporting knowledge or only being interested in the sexual attractiveness of (male) star players – female fans are just as passionate and committed to their clubs as the men.

Displaced team Velež Mostar FC’s far less glamorous postwar home, in the village of Vrapčići. Richard Mills, CC BY-ND

For tens of thousands of refugees displaced by the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina 25 years ago, the first painful hours after being ejected from their homes were often spent in football stadiums. Some found themselves in stadiums for their own protection, while for others the football stadium was the last they would see of their former community before being expelled in the name of ethnic cleansing. Читать дальше...

The clock is ticking. via shutterstock.com

The most important national law governing the Brexit process has been tabled before parliament by the UK government. The proposed European Union (Withdrawal) Bill – previously known as the “Great Repeal Bill” – is likely to pass parliament in some form eventually, but there may be well be some difficult battles ahead for the government before it does so.

Teeth don't lie. Ian Towle, Author provided

There was a lot of excitement when scientists reported the discovery of an entirely new hominin species, Homo naledi, in 2015. Since then, we are gradually learning more about them. For example, earlier this year, researchers found that they lived sometime between 335,000 and 236,000 years ago.

A young boy being treated at Baghbanan health centre. Author provided

The overseas aid budget is coming under attack, both in the UK and the USA. But that shortsighted view does not take into account how working together to help communities suffering under the shadow of terrorism can actually help us combat extremism. Our research illustrated how money raised in north-west England changed the lives of people in north-west Pakistan by advancing nutrition and providing health care.

How to identify a good care home. via shutterstock.com

Although four out of five adult care homes in England evaluated in a recent report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) were found to provide good care, it is the shocking reports of resident abuse, medication errors, under staffing and poor care that linger in the public consciousness.

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You can’t deny the popularity of emoji. If the fact that July 17th is World Emoji Day isn’t enough to convince you, then consider that the Emoji Movie will be released in early August, and that Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2015 was the emoji: “face with tears of joy” ????.

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The first exoplanet was spotted in 1988. Since then more than 3,000 planets have been found outside our solar system, and it’s thought that around 20% of Sun-like stars have an Earth-like planet in their habitable zones. We don’t yet know if any of these host life – and we don’t know how life begins. But even if life does begin, would it survive?

When pressed on the details of her plans for leaving the EU in December 2016, Theresa May didn’t offer anything of substance. Her reply was simply that she wanted a “red, white and blue Brexit”. As we and colleagues show in newly published research, it seems the British public agrees with her – just as long as the red, white and blue she’s referring to are that of the Norwegian flag.