The Conversation

Jean Tirole's theories, capturing reality as an afterthought? IMF, CC BY-NC-NDBy David Spencer, University of LeedsIt’s that time of year again – when academic economics, thanks to the Nobel Prize announcements, is thrust into the public gaze.

By Simon Redfern, University of CambridgeHow is it that Earth developed an atmosphere that made the development of life possible? A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience links the origins of Earth’s nitrogen-rich atmosphere to the same tectonic forces that drive mountain-building and volcanism on our planet. It goes some way to explaining why, compared to our nearest neighbors, Venus and Mars, Earth’s air is richer in nitrogen.

Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, with other members of his unit. Credit: Germany Army.By Ingrid Sharp, University of LeedsThe idea of a war hero is still strong in the UK and in the other Allied countries. War memorials are a central feature of the regular commemoration services, Churchill is regularly rolled out in biographical and fictional form, and there are soon to be a total of 888,246 ceramic poppies for 888,246 war heroes adorning the Tower of London.

Country music's soaring popularity in the Northeast isn't so much a novelty as it is a rebirth. Image: US NavyBy Clifford Murphy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

There are four factors to making the perfect cup of coffee. Credit: Andy Ciordia/Flickr, CC BY-NC-NDBy Don BrushettIt’s hard to get a bad coffee these days. Plenty of baristas have fine-tuned the process of making espresso, but really there are only a handful of variables they can control:

How much risk can health workers be asked to take on? Mike Segar/ReutersBy Catherine Womack, Bridgewater State UniversityTaking care of sick people has always involved personal risk. From plague to tuberculosis to smallpox to SARS, health-care workers have put themselves in danger in the course of fulfilling their duties to care for others. Many have lost their lives doing just that.

A recent study shows plants may absorb more carbon than we thought. Jason Samfield/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SABy Pep Canadell, CSIROThrough burning fossil fuels, humans are rapidly driving up levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which in turn is raising global temperatures.

Remember the big, somewhat bulky Mercedes Benz cars of the early 1990s? 

The femur that led to the oldest modern human genome. Credit: Bence Viola, MPI EVABy Daniel Zadik, University of LeicesterWhen a human bone was found on a gravelly riverbank by a bone-carver who was searching for mammoth ivory, little did he know it would provide the oldest modern-human genome yet sequenced. The anatomically modern male thigh-bone, found near the town of Ust’-Ishim in south-western Siberia, has been radiocarbon-dated to around 45,000 years old.

By Jay Rosen, New York University

Capturing an asteroid. Credit: NASABy Monica Grady, The Open University

Shia LaBeouf, Brad Pitt and more less cramped outside their tank in Fury. image by Sony PicturesBy Clifford Williamson, Bath Spa UniversityThe latest corner of World War II to be dramatized for the big screen is small. Cramped, even. In Fury, starring Brad Pitt and Shia leBeouf, we follow the story of five American soldiers, a crew serving in one tank in Germany, 1945.