A report from the International Broadcasting Trust has argued that more investment should be made to get environmental issues covered on television. Environment on TV is based on interviews with people working in the media, including programme commissioners. It offers a rare insight into the state of industry thinking. And feeling in the industry appears […] … learn more→

Asia is fast becoming a key player in global higher education. Asian nations’ growing demand for education and the increased investment they have made in their universities presents opportunities and challenges to the world. And recently, some of the first systematic steps have been taken by Asia-Pacific countries to potentially coordinate their higher-education systems. At […] … learn more→

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the superpower of knowing when a person was being truthful and when they were lying? The good news is that you don’t need superpowers. Many people who are interested in things like this are very fascinated by the study of psychology and go on to pursue a forensic psychology […] … learn more→

Are you a left brain or a right brain person? I’ve never met a person who doesn’t know what I mean by this question. The idea that creative people use the right side of their brain more than logical people (the left-brained) is an extremely strong meme. The generalised idea does originate from scientific studies. […] … learn more→

As the job market continues to thaw, recent grads and long-time job searchers have more opportunities than at any time since the housing bubble burst in 2008. New job-seekers have an array of options, but many will have to choose between taking the first step onto the corporate ladder or cutting their teeth at a […] … learn more→

If you work in higher education, you can set your watch by it: the dreaded annual ethics test. Frequently presented to university staff and faculty in the form of self-paced, online “learning modules,” the tests are designed—ostensibly—to measure your ability to deal with complex workplace situations. Introductory material explains that you will be responding to […] … learn more→

In front of British courts last year were 148,000 people who had 15 or more previous convictions, according to government figures. These reports deserve closer scrutiny. The justice minister, Chris Grayling, has used these figures to suggest a need to rush through plans to privatise most of the probation service in order to reduce re-offending […] … learn more→

Some 3,000 years ago, farmers in eastern China domesticated the soybean. In 1765, the first soybeans arrived in North America, but they did not soon catch on as a crop. For 150 years or so the soybean languished as a curiosity in gardens. Then in the late 1920s, a market for soybean oil began to […] … learn more→

Last week the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, and while other folks were debating the bushy beards and the obstruction call, I was thinking about idioms. (Yes, this is what it’s like for me as a linguist and a sports fan.) I was also thinking it was a shame that the Detroit Tigers […] … learn more→

The use of drugs to improve academic performance goes by a number of names – “academic doping”, “cosmetic neurology”, “neuroenhancement”. A recent survey suggested that Australian university students are using substances to improve their study at a higher rate than students in the US and Germany. And media articles often describe the practice as emerging, […] … learn more→