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Solving the world’s microplastics problem: 4 solutions cities and states are trying after global treaty talks collapsed

Microplastics seem to be everywhere – in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. They have turned up in human organs, blood, testicles, placentas and even brains.

The Conversation · Sep 15, 2025

‘Liberal’ has become a term of derision in US politics – the historical reasons are complicated

Kevin M. Schultz is Chair of the Department of History at the University of Illinois Chicago, where he specialises in 20th- and 21st-century American history. In Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals), he explores how the word liberal – and particularly its variant white liberal – became a…

The Conversation · Sep 11, 2025

Shame can silence, subjugate and damage us – a philosopher considers its implications

To read Frédéric Gros’s A Philosophy of Shame is to be reminded of how vulnerable we are to the emotion’s inhibitions and agonies. We shame, we are ashamed, and we expend significant energy imagining shameful situations so we might avoid them.

The Conversation · Sep 9, 2025

How a 300-year-old Scottish country estate escaped the wrecking ball

Between 1945 and 1974, Scotland lost a proportionally higher number of country houses than England — 175 of these stately formerly aristocratic homes (think Downton Abbey) were demolished, according to Country Life magazine in August 1979.

The Conversation · Sep 1, 2025

A dreamscape of transcendental potential: Rhett Davis’ Arborescence is at once terrifying and bewitching

American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s well-known hierarchy of needs theory, first proposed in 1943, positions self-actualisation at the apex of human motivation and flourishing. According to Maslow, it is only after an individual’s basic physiological needs are met – along with the need for safety, love and esteem – that they…

The Conversation · Aug 27, 2025

The World Court just ruled countries can be held liable for climate change damage – what does that mean for the US?

The opinion opens a door for future claims by countries seeking reparations for climate-related harm.

Space · Aug 25, 2025

Misunderstood Malthus: The English thinker whose name is synonymous with doom and gloom has lessons for today

No one uses “Malthusian” as a compliment. Since 1798, when the economist and cleric Thomas Malthus first published “An Essay on the Principles of Population,” the “Malthusian” position – the idea that humans are subject to natural limits – has been vilified and scorned. Today, the term is lobbed at…

The Conversation · Aug 22, 2025

Pilgrims, or posers? How medieval satire exposed people who lied about their travels to Rome and the Holy Land

Situated at the end of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route – known in English as St. James’ Way, or simply “the Camino” – the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela is constantly filled with pilgrims who have completed their journeys.

The Conversation · Aug 20, 2025

Size matters, but so does beauty and vigour — at least when it comes to peacocks

In 1871, Charles Darwin introduced his theory of sexual selection by female choice in The Descent of Man. He suggested females of a species would exhibit a preference for beauty and ornamentation when choosing mates, leading to a prevalence of those traits.

The Conversation · Aug 18, 2025

How the nature of environmental law is changing in defense of the planet and the climate

The effects of Earth's changing climate is driving up the number of legal suits related to environmental issues

Space · Aug 17, 2025