No feathers, no farms – just science on a plate. By suspending chicken cells in a gel and using a specialized device to turn them into chunks of edible tissue, researchers in Japan have recently succeeded in producing chicken nuggets – without the chicken. At 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) wide and 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) thick, the square of chicken is believed to be the largest single piece of lab-grown…
There can be no true multipolar transition – and no successful de-dollarisation – without the Ummah: a two-billion-strong social and political force poised to play a central role in the ongoing great power competition, Emmanuel Pietrobon writes. The BRICS+ alliance has come to include more and more Muslims. It is no coincidence, but a predictable inevitability: there can be no Multipolar Transition without the Ummah. Energy-rich, strategic autonomy-hungry, and fiercely…
Quick Hits The Missouri paid sick time statute requires Missouri employers to provide earned paid sick time, starting May 1, 2025. On May 14, 2025, the Missouri General Assembly passed HB-567, which would repeal the paid sick time statute. If signed by the governor, the law will be repealed effective August 28, 2025. Proposition A, which Missouri voters passed via a ballot measure on November 5, 2024, includes a provision…
The rapid adoption of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists is changing the life sciences landscape, with ripple effects extending well beyond cardiometabolic and obesity care. Global prescriptions of GLP-1 agonist therapies grew at a remarkable rate of roughly 38 percent annually between 2022 and 2024—sales are forecast to reach $100 billion by 2030. This growth has prompted interest in the downstream effects across healthcare and life sciences. In the medical aesthetics…
Stanford is naming its Science and Engineering Quad to honor a philanthropist who is helping to advance the science, technology, engineering, and medicine (STEM) fields as well as the science of extending the human health span, or staying healthier for longer.Robert Rosenkranz will fund a number of new, distinguished professorships that will be used to recognize, attract, and/or retain highly accomplished STEM faculty. The gift resulting from Rosenkranz’s commitment is…
It is obvious that Russian companies organizing the transportation of Russian oil with the involvement of both domestic and foreign ship owners will have to invest in additional measures to ensure fleet insurance, its environmental and physical safety, aimed at countering the above-described steps of unfriendly countries, including possible new sabotage operations against ships, Evgeny Tipailov and Ivan Angulo write. In the first months of 2025, the world media was…
Seyfarth Shaw is proud to sponsor the 2025 Masters Conference, a premier boutique legal event hosted in cities across the U.S., as well as in Toronto and London. The conference will be held on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at Seyfarth’s Chicago office and will feature keynote presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities. Topics will include eDiscovery, Artificial Intelligence, Information and Data Governance, Legal Project Management, Forensics and Investigations, Knowledge…
Quick Hits A bill in the New York State Assembly would prohibit employers from inquiring about applicants’ salary expectations. The bill also would prohibit employers from refusing to interview, hire, or promote workers based on their stated salary expectations. New York law already prohibits employers from asking for an applicant’s salary history. The bill, 2025-A1289, would also prohibit employers from relying on pay expectations that the applicant voluntarily shares in…
I’m just going to jump right in here and say that training alone won’t fix toxic behavior or turn around your toxic workplace. If it could, we’d all be ordering workshops like takeout. When positive workplace training topics are done right as part of a broader and more intentional culture strategy, however, it can be a catalyst. Training offers tools, vernacular, confidence, connections, and the opportunity to shift old patterns.…
Having signed a "big" treaty with Poland in Nancy, France is continuing to establish special ties with other individual EU member states while at the same time expecting to rely on Brussels in a long-term confrontation with Russia, writes Alexey Chikhachev, Associate Professor of the Department of European Studies at the Faculty of International Relations at St. Petersburg State University and leading expert at the Centre for Strategic Studies at…
What is a memory?Is it a distinct pattern of brain activity, a blueprint for future behaviour, or a skill that we can improve with a little training? Probably all these things and more, argues Jon Simons, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology and Head of the School of the Biological Sciences. Jon’s Memory Lab studies all aspects of memory. They invite volunteers to complete memory tasks online,…
In November 2024, an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal ordered Colombia to pay Telefónica — a Spanish telecommunications company — US$380 million in damages. This was because the tribunal found that Colombia had violated the fair and equitable treatment requirement in the 2005 Colombia-Spain bilateral investment treaty (BIT). The following month, Colombia filed an application for annulment of the award, as permitted by ICSID rules. The application…
At a glance A global healthcare worker shortage of at least ten million is expected by 2030. Closing that shortage could avert 189 million years of life lost to early death and disability and boost the global economy by $1.1 trillion. While known supply-side interventions that enable the workforce to grow, thrive, and stay can add about 5.6 million healthcare workers, this is not enough to close the gap. Closing…
A generous gift of over £8.4 million from the Fondation Docteur Sadok Besrour will establish the new Dr Sadok Besrour Professorship of Global Primary Care and a dedicated Besrour Centre for Global Primary Care at the University of Oxford.Housed in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences (NDPCHS), internationally recognised for its research into health systems and community-based care, the new Centre will focus on improving access to high-quality,…
Unlike traditional summits that convene the world’s experts in a single location, often at great environmental cost, the second Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit pioneers a decentralised model that will unite people across the world around a cornerstone online event.First held at the University of Colorado Boulder in December 2022, this year the event will be virtually anchored at Oxford but connected with leading universities around the world…
Rivers support life—but they also pose growing risks. As rainfall becomes more erratic and sea levels rise, floods are expected to become more frequent and severe in many parts of the world. Yet existing global river maps are outdated and overly simplified, assuming that rivers flow in a single direction and never split. They often overlook complex features, such as when a single river channel splits into multiple channels. These branching…
In addition to leukemia, CAR-T cells are now used to treat other blood cancers, including multiple myeloma and some kinds of lymphoma, and they are being tested in clinical trials for various solid tumors. Monje and her colleagues have an ongoing trial of CAR-T cells for deadly brain stem and spinal cord tumors in children, which is beginning to show success.Although patients report brain fog after CAR-T cell therapy, studies…
This term's focus on the subject of 'truth' supplied inspiration for a wide-ranging exchange of views when the Sheldonian Series returned on Tuesday 13 May.Discourse navigated the role of truth in contemporary life and the people who create it, the relationship between truth, news organisations and universities, and the impact of AI and the Trump administration.The Sheldonian Series is a termly event that launched in Michaelmas 2024, convened by the Vice-Chancellor, and…
Quick Hits The 2025–26 New York state budget includes significant amendments to the New York Labor Law, impacting wage-and-hour enforcement, liquidated damages, and child labor penalties. The amendments bring long-awaited clarity to New York pay frequency claims, including interest-only damages for a first violation. The amendments grant the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) enhanced enforcement powers, including the ability to impose a 15 percent surcharge on unsatisfied wage…
On July 1, 2025, the Regulation respecting Complaint Processing and Dispute Resolution in the Financial Sector (the Regulation) will come into force in Québec. Adopted by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the Regulation establishes a new framework for handling complaints in Québec’s financial sector. It aims to promote a more transparent and efficient complaint resolution process through the financial sector in the province. Who is subject to the Regulation?…
The Taliban hopes to send a signal to Pakistan by increasing its participation in the Chabahar port transit project that it which is not a militia group affiliated with this country, rules an independent country and has various options in foreign policy as well as trade and transit. The Chabahar Transit Project was created on May 24, 2016 as a combined, multimodal network of ships, rails, and road freight routes…
Professor Ian Walmsley This dual appointment signals Oxford’s intent to remain at the forefront of global quantum research and innovation, building on a decade of strategic investment in this critical area. The Oxford Quantum Institute, hosted by the Department of Physics, brings together researchers across departments and divisions to accelerate the development and application of quantum science and technology. Professor Walmsley’s role on the government’s advisory board further reinforces Oxford’s…
Amid overall uncertainty, including about the future that AI will bring, two things are clear. One, jobs and occupations will change as new technologies are used to handle and support more tasks. The transition to AI is already underway, according to the results of the latest McKinsey American Opportunity Survey (AOS) in which roughly 20 percent of employed respondents say that they have used gen AI for work purposes. Two,…
Quick Hits The proposed New York State Fast Food Franchisor Accountability Act would make fast-food restaurant franchisors jointly and severally liable for violations of Chapter 31 of the New York Labor Law, as well as the New York State Human Rights Law and applicable workers’ compensation laws, to the same extent that they may be enforced against fast-food restaurant franchisees. The proposed act aims to enhance accountability for fast-food restaurant…
In the current economic environment, many businesses may feel pressured to get creative with their marketing and pricing strategies to remain competitive. For example, promotional terms such as “Sale”, “Marked Down” or “End of Line” are frequently used in marketing campaigns to attract consumer attention and boost sales. While these representations may offer short term commercial advantages, businesses must exercise caution, as the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) is increasingly cracking…
If you accidentally stumbled into a solution for a major problem at work, would you turn down an employee-of-the month award? What if you spent hours of work on something trivial, and your boss offered a free lunch as a reward? Yale SOM marketing professor Corey Cusimano wondered if there are patterns to when people feel they have earned a reward. Does hard work alone justify being compensated, or…
In a trial where cancers were treated with chemotherapy followed by a targeted cancer drug before surgery, 100% of patients survived the critical three-year period post-surgery.The discovery, published today in Nature Communications, could become the most effective treatment to date for patients with early-stage breast cancer with inherited BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations. Breast cancers with faulty copies of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are challenging to treat, and came…
The United States is on track to experience the largest outbreak of measles since health officials declared the disease eliminated from the country in 2000. This year alone has seen more than 1,000 cases reported across several states, with severe outcomes for young children: Many have been hospitalized, and two children have died.About half of parents surveyed by the Kaiser Family Foundation say they’re worried about measles. Yet as cases…
The reality is that, when an economy is dependent on commodities, all of its variables are exposed tovolatility in their prices.. Fundamentally, then, the assessment of a country’s risk should not change because of market turmoil; rather, it should reflect the country’s ability to resist it. This would help reduceagitation. Fortunately, there is a practical tool for just that purpose: the fiscal breakeven. But this analysis does not necessarily fit…
The reality is that, when an economy is dependent on commodities, all of its variables are exposed to changes in the prices of those commodities. Fundamentally, then, the assessment of a country’s risk should not change because of market turmoil; rather, it should reflect the country’s ability to resist such turmoil. This would help reduce turbulence. Moreover, there is a practical tool for just that purpose: the fiscal breakeven. But…
Since 2015, McKinsey, in partnership with LeanIn.Org, has conducted annual original research on women’s participation in the formal workforce in the United States and Canada through the Women in the Workplace report series. This report extends that pioneering research to new countries—India, Nigeria, and Kenya—for the first time, addressing a major data gap and deepening our understanding of women’s representation in the formal sector in these critical markets. Our analysis…
Professor Andrew Przybylski Too often, media headlines blame social media for causing rising rates of depression and anxiety in young people, oversimplifying the issue and ignoring the complex factors at play. But the reality, as shown in new research we published with colleagues from the University of Cambridge is more nuanced. Young people with diagnosed mental health conditions experience social media differently from those without such conditions. We found that adolescents with…
The rapid rise of gen AI has captured the world’s imagination and accelerated the integration of AI into the global economy and the lives of people across the world. Gen AI heralds a step change in productivity. As institutions apply AI in novel ways, beyond the advanced analytics and machine learning (ML) applications of the past ten years, the global economy could increase significantly, improving the lives and livelihoods of…
Tell me about Fair Haven Community Health Care and who it serves. Fair Haven Community Health Clinic, as it was called then, was founded in 1971 by a group of women activists. This has long been an immigrant community—go back 70 or 80 years, and it was largely Irish and Italian. By the early ’70s it was becoming more Hispanic. A group of women got a $5,000 grant from the…
This commentary was adapted from a commencement address delivered at Sacred Heart University and originally published in the Hartford Courant. The views expressed are the authors’ own. A few days ago, the College of Cardinals convened to select a successor to the beloved Pope Francis—a very challenging reign for any human to follow. It would be presumptuous for me to suggest the leadership qualities needed for this daunting role, but…
The research challenges a widespread assumption about LLMs: that these learn how to generate language primarily by inferring rules from their training data. Instead, the models rely heavily on stored examples and draw analogies when dealing with unfamiliar words, much as people do.To explore how LLMs generate language, the study compared judgments made by humans with those made by GPT-J (an open-source large language model developed by EleutherAI in 2021)…
‘Counter-connecting’ is a term coined by the lead author, Dr Julia Badger, of a recently released paper ‘Bullying or counter-connecting? Two inclusive definitions for schools’.Julia, who is a Departmental Lecturer of Child Development and Education at the Department of Education, University of Oxford, said: 'There is no standardised or universally accepted definition of school bullying, and the most frequently used definitions are not inclusive of the experiences of pupils with…
Modernization is one of the most pressing challenges facing the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry. In the past decade, core systems built for a slower, paper-driven insurance model have evidently become no longer fit for purpose. They leave carriers struggling with operational inefficiencies, rising IT maintenance costs, and growing pressure to meet customer expectations for real-time responsiveness, such as instant quotes and faster claims payouts. Staying competitive demands adopting…
One of the most resonant events at the beginning of Donald Trump's second term in office was the large-scale increase in tariffs on imports to the United States. The new tariff policy affected almost all trading partners, and separate duties were introduced for a group of more than seventy countries. This “trade war against the whole world” became another shock of the first hundred days of the new administration. The…
The Faculty Senate received updates Thursday from the vice provosts of undergraduate education and student affairs regarding their efforts to support and enhance the Stanford undergraduate experience. Senators also learned about the Emeriti/ae Council’s work addressing the needs of the university’s emeriti community.Stanford strives to offer undergraduates a modern liberal arts education focused on self-knowledge, moral development, citizenship, and an intrinsic love of learning, said Jay Hamilton, the Freeman-Thornton Vice…