|
“Drill more, pay less” is a powerful political message that resurfaces every time oil prices spike. The UK should double down on North Sea oil and gas, goes the argument, so it can still enjoy cheap energy.
But the reality is not so simple. Cassandra Etter-Wenzel and her colleagues at the University of Oxford say that even a major expansion in North Sea drilling would only make a small dent in household energy bills – even if all tax revenues were used to subsidise costs. The more significant savings, they suggest, would come from something less obvious: moving away from gas-powered electricity and towards renewables.
Meanwhile, in their war on Iran, the US and Israel are making use of AI systems that process vast amounts of military intelligence in seconds. But some researchers worry that it reduces human oversight and can lead to devastating civilian casualties – albeit at a level the AI is programmed to accept.
And the movie Moulin Rouge! turns 25 this year. Richard Rushton, a film studies professor at Lancaster University, looks at how director Baz Luhrmann broke genre conventions and reinvented the musical for a new generation.
PS - If you like what we do, consider adding theconversation.com to your preferred sources in Google. This is how to do it.
|
|
Will de Freitas
Environment + Energy Editor
|
|
Igor Hotinsky / shutterstock
Cassandra Etter-Wenzel, University of Oxford; Anupama Sen, University of Oxford; Nadia Schroeder, University of Oxford
Maximising North Sea production would reduce bills by just £16 to £82 per year, say researchers.
|
A US Department of Defense press briefing on March 4 highlights the array of targets during the first 100 hours of the US-Israel war on Iran.
Military Image/Alamy
Craig Jones, Newcastle University; Helen M Kinsella, University of Minnesota
The speed and scale of war are being enhanced by AI systems – but they also bring new risks for civilians and military combatants.
|
Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge!a.
Album/Alamy
Richard Rushton, Lancaster University
The average shot length in Moulin Rouge! is under two seconds. While acceptable for an action movie, nothing like this had ever been done in a musical.
|
World
|
-
Marc Roscoe Loustau, Central European University
Viktor Orbán has renewed his hostile approach to Ukraine with elections fast approaching.
-
Raul Zepeda Gil, King's College London
Mexico’s cartel landscape has expanded significantly since 2006, fuelled by arms smuggling and drug consumption north of the border.
|
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Daniel Alge, Brunel University of London
By autumn 2025 the Crown Court backlog had reached nearly 80,000 outstanding cases.
|
|
Arts + Culture
|
-
Luis Freijo, King's College London
Host Conan O’Brien kept the political references to harmless jokes.
-
Frazer Lee, Brunel University of London
Four of the big winners at this year’s Oscars were horror films – is the genre finally getting some respect from the industry?
-
Philip Howell, University of Cambridge
What pets are and what they mean is still a puzzle, as this exhibition explores.
|
|
Business + Economy
|
-
Lotanna Emediegwu, Manchester Metropolitan University
Energy price spikes will force up the cost of grain imports.
-
Spinder Dhaliwal, University of Westminster
Resilient and not afraid to learn from your mistakes? Your passion could be the next big start-up.
|
|
Education
|
-
Holly Louise Parrott, The Open University
Awareness of disability in higher education has improved. Disabled students’ access still depends on how reliably universities deliver support day to day.
|
|
Environment
|
-
Chris Macdonald, University of Cambridge
Emerging technologies such as lab-based meat could produce the same quality and quantity of protein on hundreds of times less land.
|
|
Health
|
-
Laura Boubert, University of Westminster
Sleeping together can synchronise heart rates and boost intimacy. But if a partner disrupts your sleep, separate beds may protect both health and relationship.
-
Nicola Tempest, University of Liverpool
Around 70-80% of women will develop at least one fibroid by the time they’re 50.
-
Elizabeth Rosser, UCL; Beth Jebson, UCL
Up to 30% of children with juvenile arthritis develop uveitis, an eye inflammation that can damage vision. New research highlights immune cells as treatment targets.
-
Justin Stebbing, Anglia Ruskin University
Weight-loss injections like Ozempic may help cancer patients with brain tumours live longer. But experts urge caution before drawing firm conclusions.
|
|
Science + Technology
|
-
Stephan Blum, University of Tübingen; Stefan Baumann, KU Leuven
Debunking alien claims matters, but so does telling richer, more compelling stories about how humans shaped their own past.
|
|
The most clicked links from yesterday
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
2 March - 30 September 2026
•
|
| |
