Title of course: Socially Engaged Design of Nuclear Energy Technologies What prompted the idea for the course? The two of us had some experience with participatory design coming into this course, and we had a shared interest in bringing virtual reality into a first-year design class at the University of Michigan. It seemed like a good fit […] … learn more→

There is a Fox News headline that goes like this: Transgender female runner who beat 14,000 women at London Marathon offers to give medal back Read about the event elsewhere and it turns out the athlete was also beaten by thousands of people and it was a participation medal. While the Fox News headline is true, it is […] … learn more→

Ironically, Mark Zuckerberg’s attempts to muzzle his former employee, Sarah Wynn-Williams, once director of global public policy at Meta, seem to have created a bestseller. While Meta’s legal action successfully prevented Wynn-Williams (who worked there from 2011–17) from promoting her memoir, Careless People, her publisher has continued to promote it without her. In the week of its release, the […] … learn more→

Google announced the launch of AI Overviews, its generative artificial intelligence-fuelled search feature, in May 2024. Initially named Search Generative Experience, AI Overviews offers Google users AI-generated answers by sourcing and summarizing information from different websites. These AI responses are positioned at the top of the page for immediate visibility. The aim is to improve […] … learn more→

Today’s young people are facing increasing levels of uncertainty. Faced with volatile job and housing markets, they must also contend with a future that will likely be heavily impacted by the climate crisis. Data also reveals a sharp decline in their mental health. Encouraging them to develop resilience is often touted as key. Resilience is generally defined as the […] … learn more→

When governments, policymakers or the news media discuss migration, the focus is almost exclusively on those who physically cross borders, seek asylum or arrive at ports of entry. But migration does not begin at at the moment of departure or upon arrival. It starts much earlier, as an aspiration. Recent surveys show a sharp rise in global […] … learn more→

Bullying is a serious problem that impacts hundreds of millions of young people across the world each year. Defined as the goal-directed, harmful abuse of a power imbalance, bullying can cause serious, long-term physical and mental health outcomes for victims. As a result, countries around the world have mobilized anti-bullying efforts. Unfortunately, these efforts have had relatively little impact on […] … learn more→

The few surveys conducted on money creation indicate that the vast majority of citizens are completely unaware of the current. In the words of the Bank of England : “Most money in the modern economy is created by commercial banks when they make loans” (with equivalent descriptions of the Fed and the Bundesbank ). Around 95% of money is created […] … learn more→

Waking up in 2025 is weird. Take this morning as just one example. I open my eyes and immediately fumble for the phone, opening BlueSky and Threads to see what craziness has come out from the USA while I slept here in Australia. Reassuring myself that we are all still alive (well, some of us […] … learn more→

I’m a bit late posting this week. This is largely down to running a writing workshop and then trying to do all the catching up. But since the workshop I’ve had a nagging wondering … Let me explain. This recent writing workshop had a big emphasis on literatures work. The ‘literatures chapter’ is a key […] … learn more→