A person wakes in the middle of the night, overwhelmed and needing someone to talk to. But instead of calling a loved one or booking a counselling session, they open ChatGPT. Around the world, artificial intelligence chatbots are becoming companions, coaches, sounding boards, and, for a rising number of people, unofficial therapists. Studies have found that many […] … learn more→

Peptide may not yet be the 2026 Oxford Word of the Year, but it must surely be in the running. From your friendly neighbourhood influencer, to the gym bros, injectable peptides have been all over social media and are now making mainstream news when things go horribly wrong. People are taking them, and promoting them, for […] … learn more→

That tweet is back. You know the one. A PhD thesis, it says, is the only book in the world read cover to cover by exactly three people: the author, the proofreader, and the examiner. The screenshot of the tweet gets thousands of likes every time it resurfaces. I always wonder how many of those […] … learn more→

AI romantic companions — digital agents that can text, speak, flirt and are always available — are a rapidly growing social phenomenon. The number of AI companion apps rose by 700 per cent between 2022 and 2025. One of the more popular ones, Character.AI, reported about 20 million monthly active users in 2025. Their appeal is easy to […] … learn more→

Content creators are ubiquitous in the audiovisual landscape and on social media, becoming essential intermediaries in accessing information and making purchases. Their ability to capture attention, shape opinions, and influence desires raises questions. This phenomenon becomes even more concerning with the emergence of virtual influencers, who lack a human presence and do not reveal who […] … learn more→

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the refusal to be vaccinated stemmed in particular from a lack of confidence in the vaccine’s efficacy and safety. Climate change deniers ( 32% in France ) continue to deny the role of human activities in climate change. These two examples share a common thread: the questioning of scientific findings, leading to “scientific skepticism . […] … learn more→

The death of the Sun is a distant but inevitable event. Understanding what will happen when our star runs out of fuel is one of the great questions of modern astronomy; its end determines the fate of the Solar System, and that of Earth. Now, a new study from the University of St Andrews (UK), published […] … learn more→

Increasingly, business education programs include courses on sustainability, social responsibility, environmental management, and the circular economy. However, one question is rarely addressed: Are we training professionals capable of changing how companies operate to foster a genuine commitment to social and environmental issues? The evidence suggests that this isn’t always the case. Including content on sustainability […] … learn more→

Walk into any college library and you will likely see students wearing headphones and listening to music. The idea that music can improve learning has been around for decades. The “Mozart Effect,” is the pop psychology myth, first hypothesized in a 1993 paper, that listening to classical music can help people retain and process new information. As an educational […] … learn more→

When you first started postgraduate study, someone probably told you that you had to be reflexive. You may even have been told to include a section on reflexivity in your thesis. No, you don’t have to have a specific section called reflexivity in your thesis. But you probably do need to say something about it. […] … learn more→