The Conversation
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Here’s how to make the Hajj safer – by better understanding crowd psychology
The crowd crush at the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia has claimed the lives of more than 700 people and injured at least 850 more. Sadly this is not […]
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Which species will survive the Earth’s sixth mass extinction?
Being big – larger than a dog – increases the risk of being wiped out in a mass extinction.
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The theory of parallel universes is not just maths – it is science that can be tested
The existence of parallel universes may seem like something cooked up by science fiction writers, with little relevance to modern theoretical physics. But the idea that we live in a […]
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Could ‘balanced harvesting’ really feed the world and save the oceans?
Scientists and policymakers are simultaneously looking for new ways to feed the world and save the oceans. Global seafood demands are increasing, and fisheries and aquaculture already have large impacts […]
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Celebrity selfies helped us to uncover how memories are formed in the brain
In the science fiction movie Inception, Leonardo Di Caprio and his gang set out to implant specific memories into individuals’ brains in order to pull off the perfect crime. But […]
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Early humans had to become more feminine before they could dominate the planet
Two recent papers throw some light on how the revolutionary development of smaller and more fine-boned humans influenced the growth of cooperative culture, the birth of agriculture and human dominance […]
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Revealed: the great geologist behind the Origin of Species
To understand how Darwin arrived at these conclusions it is necessary to turn to the manuscripts from the first half of his life. They reveal something that is not nearly […]
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How frogs and fish can help us learn to freeze humans
From Star Wars to Futurama to Alien, the idea that humans can be frozen in time in order to be awoken later is a well-established sci-fi trope. While stopping biological […]
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Here’s what baboons can teach us about social media
“Birds of a feather flock together” is a saying that exists in a number of different languages. “Gambá cheira gambá” (opossums smell other opossums) in Brazilian Portuguese is a particularly […]