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Does increased childcare funding help mothers into work?

Since Labour won the 2024 general election, policy focused on children in the early years – from birth to school age – and their parents has moved sharply up the political agenda.

The Conversation · Oct 5

Rhinos and elephants can cause huge problems if reintroduced badly – here’s how to get it right

Moving large animals around is a seductive idea in conservation. If there are plenty of animals in one place and too few in another, moving some between the two seems an obvious solution. Sometimes it is. But with animals as large, mobile and socially complicated as elephants and rhinos, the…

The Conversation · Oct 5

Unusual senses: the secret superpowers of amphibians and reptiles

The Surinam toad is one of the strangest frogs on Earth. Flat-bodied, tiny-eyed and adapted to the murky waters of the Amazon basin, it hunts well despite having very poor vision. When a fish swims close, the frog suddenly opens its mouth and sucks the prey inside in a fraction…

The Conversation · Oct 5

Andy Burnham wants beer back in the stands – but football’s traditional fans have larger concerns

Andy Burnham, Everton fan and prime minister, has declared the ban on drinking pitch-side at football games to be discriminatory given that fans of other sports, even in the same ground, could happily enjoy a beer while watching a game.

The Conversation · Oct 5

How will humans of the future be augmented? Six striking ideas from science fiction

The transformation of the human body has been a recurring concern of science fiction for more than 200 years. It has reflected both our hopes of overcoming physical limitations, and our fears about how technology may change what it means to be human.

The Conversation · Oct 5

Russia is using Ukraine’s children to win its occupation – and the wider war

A year or so after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the city of Murmansk in Russia’s Arctic north-west marked its annual regional day with a celebration for children. Alongside the sons and daughters of Russian soldiers stood children taken from the occupied Prymorskyi district of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.

The Conversation · Oct 5

How ‘technoference’ can disrupt parent-child connections

Have you ever been telling someone a story when their phone lights up, and their eyes flicker toward their device?

The Conversation · Oct 5

Listen, understand, repeat: the circular approach to good communication in a health crisis

During a health crisis, the first instinct is often to give people information. Governments make announcements. Experts explain what is happening. Health departments share information on television, radio, social media and through communities. The idea seems simple: give people the right information, and they can make better decisions.

The Conversation · Oct 5

Military coups promise change – 4 ways they can leave African countries worse off

A military coup d’état is the ouster of an elected president or head of state, usually through the use or threat of force. Putschists (those who participate in a coup) often justify their actions by accusing the government of mismanaging the economy and lowering living standards. Political instability is another…

The Conversation · Oct 5

US migrant flights to Liberia evoke troubling history of sending people deemed unwanted to the West African nation

The Supreme Court’s recent decision to temporarily allow the United States to resume deporting migrants to third-country destinations could see the resumption of flights to Liberia.

The Conversation · Oct 5