Nowadays users get informed and shape their opinion through social media. However, the disintermediated access to contents does not guarantee quality of information. Selective exposure and confirmation bias, indeed, have been shown to play a pivotal role in content consumption and information spreading. Users tend to select information adhering (and reinforcing) their worldview and to ignore di...

On the same day that the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, huge rises in UK death rates were reported. These rises followed the austerity policies enacted by the 2010 coalition government. Self reported health was a key component of David Cameron’s wellbeing index, and it has declined in every year of his premiership, most rapidly towards the end. In March 2016 the Office for National Stati...

As political scientists, we are not familiar with the habits of medical journals. In most analyses of voting behaviour it’s common to focus on the relative risk of voting for a party or an outcome: an analysis that focuses on absolute numbers is therefore liable to mislead. If medical journals also tend to focus on relative risks then Dorling’s analysis is also liable to mislead, notwithstandin...

More than 500 million people and 28 nations make up the European Union. It will lose one of its richest, most populous members, if the United Kingdom votes to leave on 23 June. Ahead of a possible ‘Brexit’, Nature examines five core ways that the EU shapes the course of research. The EU affects science from the collaborative opportunities that the bloc creates to the billions of euros that it d...

Once again the impacts of free trade are at the forefront of international economic discussions. From renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to Brexit, many nations are reanalyzing their views on international trade and globalization. This article examines the impacts of two major trade liberalization events on Texas manufacturing employ...

Just a few days after the Brexit referendum, the EU heads of state and government welcomed the “Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy”. The document, which CFSP High Representative Federica Mogherini spent a year preparing, reads as yet another declaration of intent, calling for greater unity in the CFSP. It argues for what is at first glance an astonishingly defe...

THIS time last year, the UK’s electorate was gearing up to vote in a referendum to decide on the country’s future in the European Union. This week, the electorate is gearing up to vote again, this time to decide on the government it wants to lead Brexit negotiations. Among those who will be following those negotiations closely will be members of the UK’s research, development and innovation sec...