The Academic Writing Platform for the Middle Common Room.
In 1961, a group of architects gathered in a Soho loft to gripe about the inequalities of the world. As they looked around London, they wondered: if they could imagine a better city, would they imagine a better world? My research investigates how 1960s-1970s architects and theoreticians used emerging technology to revolutionize city, and even country, planning.
The 19th century witnessed a growing interest in the visual arts, particularly in the relationships between pictures and text. During this period, two significant debates emerged: the truthful representation of nature and the interplay of line and colour. Scientific advancements in colour pigmentation and dyes revolutionised artistic practices, challenging traditional notions of colour usage and meaning. My research explores the impact of these developments on the works of renowned artists such as J.M.W. Turner and John Ruskin, as well as their integration into the literary landscape through the writings of Thomas Hardy.
Punishing fluorescent lights cast a synthetic glow across the corridors of the high-security facility. Armed guards shuffle nervously at their posts. The eerie quiet is broken intermittently by muffled orders on crackly walkie-talkies. Suddenly, a piercing siren fills the silence. Panicked guards march hurriedly to join the search team. But it’s too late. The prisoner is gone. The guards are terrified – this inmate was bad news.
Exploring the vast and unknown Universe is one of the grandest challenges of humanity. Astronomy, a discipline appearing from ancient times, studies celestial objects and phenomena such as galaxies and cosmic background radiation.
Picture the map room scene from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. The titular hero, armed with the recently liberated headpiece of the Staff of Ra, fixes it to long stick and places it within a broad beam of diffuse sunlight penetrating into the underground chamber – revealing a map holding the location of the Well of Souls. The burnished ruby jewel held within the headpiece acts to focus the sunlight into a narrow beam of electromagnetic energy that Indy steers over the map until the white light phase-shifts to red and reveals the location of the Ark of the Covenant.
In 2019, a tech journalist from the US conducted a six-week experiment wherein she lived without using the services of major tech giants – Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple. She summarized her experience as nothing less than ‘hellish.’ Such detox means no more ‘how to’ videos from YouTube, missing out on your friends’ stories and events posted on your Facebook groups, and being unable to participate in conferences hosted on Teams. And forget the convenience of ordering last-minute gifts from Amazon (if you are lucky enough to hear about the occasion in the first place without the built-in channels of these tech giants).
A subway extension is delayed 18 months. The Olympic Games run 800 million over budget. A hydroelectric dam burst causes 100,000 acres of environmental damage.
What does it say that such headlines are greeted with sarcastic shrugs? ‘Wow, what a surprise,’ we muse.
Even with a wealth of historical data, modern technology, and the brightest minds at our disposal, major programmes always seem to run over time, over budget, and underdeliver on their promises. But why?
Here’s the thing, oil tankers are causing ecological problems. According to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited (ITOPF) annual report, 15,000 tonnes of oil was lost into the environment in 2022 [3]. Three oil spills are over 700 tonnes of oil. This isn’t a current problem after having grown up in Cornwall and seeing the impact of the Torry Canyon oil spill nearly 60 years on from the wreck. The Torry Canyon spill was and still is one of the worst wrecks in history [4] and is remembered very well by many locals.
The spread of oil was unheard of; fifty miles of the French coastline and eighty miles of the Cornish coastline were coated in a slick of oil[5]. Fifteen thousand seabirds were killed, many environments were destroyed, and
the ecological climate was forever ruined. The authorities tried to solve the issues caused by the spill with more chemicals and tried to bury the oil, causing the problems we still see today on many cornish beaches [2].
Hades, according to Greek mythology, is the God of the Underworld and last regurgitated son of Cronos. He is also the namesake for the earliest geologic period in Earth’s history. The Hadean era earns its name from the fiery, molten state of the Earth 4.5 billion years ago. How did we go from hellscape to a lush planet with oceans? Planetary scientists from all over this planet are trying to answer this question by building a framework to understand terrestrial planet histories. To date, there are 5,307 confirmed exoplanets. An exoplanet, shortened from extra-solar planet, is a planet orbiting a star outside of our solar system. With so many planets, we are able to look at snapshots of planets throughout their lifetime. These population studies may give us the necessary insights to better understand the formation history of our own planet.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on consumer payment habits, affecting the payments sector through expediting transitions from cash to digital or electronic payment sources. Let that be through a sharp shift in purchasing towards online platforms, or credit cards being preferred as a method of payment over cash at physical stores; the change is imminent, and principally in the UK.