Star-crossed and lovesick Princess Diana had a habit of picking wrong men
Days after the unveiling of Princess Diana Statue in Kensington, London, on what would have been her 60th birthday, the media delved, once again, into her private life and reminded the world of her rarely talked about relationship with Hasnat Khan, a Pakistani surgeon. According to OK, an entertainment magazine,...
Report details how mental health of graduate students is sorely overlooked
Graduate students around the world need more support to manage the mental-health issues, such as depression and anxiety, that they are experiencing at worrying rates, according to a report from two US non-profit organizations. The study was co-produced by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) in Washington DC and the...
Trump Org: Case against developer alleges $1.76m in unreported compensation
Prosecutors this week charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with systematically and illegally evading taxes for years, largely by failing to report compensation. The former president’s development firm and CFO Allen Weisselberg used a variety of schemes to cheat the government, according to an indictment that Manhattan...
‘Psychedelic drugs and the hallucinations they induce can reveal how brains work’
“Everything became imbued with a sense of vitality and life and vividness. If I picked up a pebble from the beach, it would move. It would glisten and gleam and sparkle and be absolutely captivating,” says neuroscientist Anil Seth. “Somebody looking at me would see me staring at a stone...
‘Every time one of us is rejected, dismissed or murdered, I question why I’m still in academia’
As marchers in the United States and around the world filled the streets this past week to protest against police brutality and racial injustice, Black scientists grieved openly on social media, calling for action on racism in society and in science. Many stated ways in which institutions and colleagues, from...
Journalist’s notebook: I saw a woman gang-raped, uterus burned with hot metal rod, so no Tigrayan womb can give birth
Lucy Kassa is an Ethiopian journalist whose reporting on the war in Tigray has exposed massacres, sexual violence, man-made starvation, and other grave human rights abuses. She has been attacked and threatened for her work, but has refused to stay silent. Here, she reflects on the emotional toll of covering...
Why damage from natural hazards is severest in societies with low incomes
The year 2020 saw further devastating floods, caused by storms such as Cyclone Amphan in South Asia and a record-breaking hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean. It is now clear that the changing climate is making coastal flooding more frequent, downpours heavier and storms wetter. Less appreciated is that the...
Vaccine made of live malaria parasites shows early success in clinical trial
An experimental malaria vaccine that contains live parasites protected nearly all recipients from infection in a small clinical trial. Participants in the study, published on June 30 in Nature, were given a shot containing live Plasmodium falciparum parasites, along with drugs to kill any parasites that reached the liver or...
How some institutions address academic bullying said to be rife in universities
Academic bullying remains a scourge in research and higher institutions of learning around the world. Alexandra Olaya-Castro, vice-dean for equality, diversity and inclusion in the faculty of mathematical and physical sciences at University College London (UCL), says her institution established a Report + Support tool in 2019 to addresses the...
Press Freedom in Latin America suffers as governments enforce Covid protocols
Many of the emergency measures enacted in Latin America in response to Covid-19 restricted media freedom and could have negative long-term implications for free expression, according to a new report released as pandemic deaths in the region surpassed one million and vaccine access remained sparse. The report, Covid-19 Response Measures...
